THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
325 
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I American Association of Park Superintendents 
| OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
EMIL T. MISCHE, President, Portland, Ore. R. W. COTTERILL, Sec.-Treas., Seattle, Washington. 
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ASSOCIATION NOTES. 
Now that our New Orleans convention date has been definitely 
set as October 10-11-12. it is to be hoped that all of our members 
are making their vacation plans so as to attend. 
This will be the first convention of the Association to be held 
south of Washington, D. C, and it should prove a popular one as 
but few of the members have visited the South. The boat trip 
should prove popular for delegates from the New England and At- 
lantic States and a party will no doubt be organized. 
The best feature of all, however, will be that we will have in 
attendance for the first time, park executives from a dozen or more 
cities of the South which have not heretofore been represented at 
our conventions and who no doubt will affiliate with our organiza- 
tion. 
Altogether the New Orleans convention should be a banner one in 
the matter of attendance as well as from the standpoint of bene- 
ficial results tec all concerned. 
The Secretary will shortly send to every known park superin- 
tendent in the country an invitation to attend this convention, also 
a letter to every Park Board urging that executive people be sent. 
We have about thirty members who have not sent in their dues 
for the current fiscal year. No doubt these members have it in 
mind to make payment at the convention, but it should be noted 
that our convention is two months later than usual this year and 
the fiscal year of the Association closes August 1. hence those who 
have not paid up by that time will shew as delinquent in the sec- 
retary's annual report. If you are a delinquent, remit at once. 
At last year's convention there was a ureal deal of talk about 
securing new members and the time has now arrived for action. 
Every member will within the next month receive from the Sec- 
retary, blank application forms and it remains to be seen whether 
tiny will be made use of. Just take the trouble to write or see 
some eligible park man and secure his signed application. There 
is no reason on earth why we should not have at least one hundred 
more members and the reason why we don't get them is because 
but few of our members interest themselves in the matter. We 
hear a great deal of talk about it on the convention floor and then 
it is apparently dropped as regards results. 
One thing is certain and that is that the income from the pres- 
ent membership is not sufficient to permit of carrying our work 
on properly by the issuance of bulletins, etc. 
This can be overcome by a sustaining membership of not less 
than three hundred and it is right up to our present membership 
as to whether we are to stand still or advance. 
Dwight F. Davis, formerly Commissioner of Parks of St. Louis, 
is now president of the 'recently organized National Municipal Rec- 
reation Federation and Nelson Cunliffe of St. Louis, another of 
our members, is secretary-treasurer of the organization. 
Its purpose is to bring about a more extensive use of public rec- 
reation grounds, by promoting inter-city golf and tenuis tourna- 
ments as well as a more general indulgence in all forms of ath- 
letics. This is indeed a worthy purpose and a national organiza- 
tion of this kind will accomplish great good. Park men generally, 
should and no doubt will, give the new organization the support 
and encouragement it deserves. 
PRESIDENT'S REVIEW OF PARK REPORTS. 
Muskogee. Oklahoma, is one of those thriving communities of 
the Middle South where push and public spirit are in evidence. 
Though small in size, she has shown considerable interest in park 
work. Manv believe the Pacific Coast is the only rapidly advanc- 
ing section of the country, but during the past decade the South- 
west has held a position above the average. Another decade will 
doubtless witness a series of considerable sized cities in a very 
prosperous condition in the Middle West and Oklahoma may be 
expected to hold her own. 
Rochester. N. Y.. reports in detail abundant work in maintain- 
ing a high standard of upkeep. Repairs, replacements and intense 
put usage in everywhere a large concern of its administration. 
An innovation 'is the lighting of tennis courts for the con- 
venience of night users. 
Much forestry work is continuously being prosecuted and, as 
might be surmised, with Rochester, with thoroughness. 
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Ninety band concerts were held and cost over $15,000, a large 
appropriation for a city of Rochester's size. This city has per- 
haps done more proportionately than any other to elevate public 
music, as conducted in parks, and apparently finds it of high 
inductive value to the parks. Aquatic sports on t lie river are 
featured, and have become a notable affair in western New York 
During the year the city has joined the ranks of those having 
changed their charters, and insofar as parks are concerned, 
abolished the old board of commissioners in favor of a one-man 
head, but with this distinction — one worthy of particular note — 
Mr. A. B. Lamberton, who has served as a commissioner for many 
years and brought many of the park systems advantages into 
popular use and pioneered the entire movement to the stage of 
making Rochester parks one of the three conspicuous things in 
which every good citizen takes just pride. He was promptly 
appointed the new commissioner, and the latter reappointed Su- 
perintendent Laney and the balance of the staff. 
It argues well for a fair test of the new form of government, 
and any merits it may possess should be brought out without 
retrogression. 
New York report is mainly valuable in rehearsing the adminis- 
tration course necessary to protect and develop tracts that have 
reached the 1 ultimate in use. When a property accommodates the 
maximum number of people it is fitted to serve, any additional 
tax put upon it immediately threatens to subvert its original 
uses; adjustments are sometimes made by acquiring new tracts, 
by extending or enlarging facilities, or by changes in sort or 
methods of control. 
We note that all these means are being put into operation in 
New York to care for the past congestion; co-operation with city 
planning efforts is commended, requests for island lands now oc- 
cupied by penal institutions are made a definite insistence, urged 
on looking ahead and planning for sites before the land is built 
upon. 
New York parks are tolerably well protected against stupidity 
and perversion by changing offices as a consequence of a live, in- 
telligent public opinion which frequently permits itself to be 
heard. This public consciousness does not delve deeply enough 
into the whole problem to demand solutions of troubles by study- 
ing the entire situation and forcing remedial steps to be applied 
by foresighted action. It contents itself rather by protecting 
what exists and trusts largely to the Board of Apportionment 
and the Borough Commissioners to develop more comprehensive 
schemes. The last New York report would indicate that the trust 
so placed has found warrant in the officers in charge. 
As a whole, the New York situation is exceedingly complex 
and, in a measure, a law unto itself. It therefore offers a fine 
field for study of effects and trend and limits of possibilities. 
But its large problem is one of organization — the systematizing 
of the work, accounting for results, securing efficiency in opera- 
tion and directing the particular work undertaken. 
Individual items assume large proportions, as, for example, 
400,000 sq. ft. of paved walks being laid in one season, expending 
about $300,000 in three years for walk pavements. 
In the Roroughts of Manhattan and Richmond alone there are 
55 miles of asphalt walks, 3 of cement and 4 of graved. 
Placing musicians on the employers' roster rather than letting 
out concerts to bandmasters' bids has proven a betterment, 
ostensibly by overcoming that same objection found elsewhere, 
namely, the filling in the number of musicians by ill-qualified 
performers and making the work a trading proposition among 
musicians who lead small organizations and arrange exchange 
engagements among themselves. 
Minneapolis now has 3.S00 acres of park property costing at 
the time of acquisition five millions, to which almost three mil- 
lions have been added for improvements, most of which was com- 
pleted during Superintendent Wirth's term of office, and better- 
ments still continue and acknowledgment made that extensions 
cannot be stopped until the city ceases to grow. 
As a whole the work has been furthered with a commendable 
singleness of purpose during a period of many years. 
Showing the trend of park uses is a suggestion of Superin- 
tendent Wirth to provide camping sites for automobile parties, 
furnishing wood, water and fireplaces. This as a city park is 
verily carrying the rural advantages of the country to Mohammet. 
Another point made is the endorsement of a suggestion from 
the Bureau of Municipal Research to employ a publicity man. 
"Like a large, successful business house, we must advertise the 
