PARK AND CEMETERY. 
9 
libary, which would add much to its 
beauty; the , Wilson warehouse and 
Robinson & Doll corner, so that the 
library and capitol grounds may be 
connected by park area, and Fifteenth 
street straightened to Broadway; the 
Jackson triangle, near the United States 
mint, so that when the pioneers’ monu- 
ment is erected where the Broadway 
hose house now stands, the center of 
civic beauty would be established — an 
open plaza, with the mint to the south; 
the state capitol, public library and pio- 
neers’ monument all in plain view. 
Other public and semi-public buildings 
would soon be clustered around this 
center. 
It is also proposed that Broadway 
be extended from its present terminus 
at Welton street. Twentieth avenue and 
Nineteenth street north to Blake street, 
and thence to and across the South 
Platte river, in order to give an unob- 
structed through roadway running 
north and south and meeting Colfax 
avenue, which already crosses the city 
from east to west, at the proposed civic 
center. This will form a junction be- 
tween the two main highways at the 
state capitol and would make the new 
parkway the civic center in fact as well 
as in name. 
The park board has $190,000 this 
year for maintenance and improve- 
ments, $20,000 more than last year. 
The land to be bought will be paid for 
by regular park assessments. In sub- 
district A, Highland park, the highest 
assessment on a lot 25x125 feet, was $3, 
the highest in sub-district B was $2.25 
per lot, and the highest in sub-district 
C was $1.25 per lot, payment running 
through 15 years. 
Improvements this year include the 
placing of boats on Smith’s lake; addi- 
tional planting in City park. Congress 
park, Berkeley, Washington park and 
the new park on Ellsworth; a pipe line 
between Rocky Mountain and Berkeley 
lakes; a boy’s swimming pool at the 
junction of the Platte and Archer lake; 
establishment of a gymnasium and play- 
grounds near the Neighborhood house 
and a general improvement of lawns 
throughout all the more important 
parks and the small triangles. 
The children have been cared for 
with the new playgrounds, and the two 
established last year at a cost of $5,000, 
on West Thirty-eighth street and Cur- 
tis street, the swimming pool and four 
skating rinks already made and a num- 
ber more planned. 
A pumping plant, costing $30,000, and 
2,000 feet of water main in City park 
were installed last year, Washington 
park getting the old plant. The new 
pump has a capacity of 5,000 gallons of 
water a minute and will supply Con- 
gress park with water. Beautiful 
Mountview boulevard was built east of 
City park at a cost of $5,000, and plant- 
ed with 600 trees. 
At Washington park a lake of eight- 
een acres is almost finished. This in 
connection with Smith’s lake will give 
Washington park the largest water sur- 
face of any park in the city. 
These improvements, as may be seen 
by reference to the accompanying draw- 
ings, are well distributed throughout 
the city to produce a well-balanced park 
system admirably suited to Denver's 
tourist and pleasure-loving population. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH OILED ROADS IN BOSTON PARKS 
It is quite evident that, with the ad- 
vent of the automobile, new problems 
in road construction and maintenance 
confront us. The present method of 
macadam construction will not stand 
the wear and tear of the pneumatic 
tire of the automobile under high 
speed; the traction of the driving 
wheels, combined with the suction of 
the tires, quickly draws the binding 
material from between the macadam 
and disintegration rapidly follows. 
The automobile, however, is a prac- 
tical machine, and its use is bound to 
increase, especially when its applica- 
tion is extended to general employment 
for traffic purposes. It is here to stay, 
and the question is not so much one 
of adapting automobile travel to the 
roads as that of adapting the roads to 
the requirements of modern automobile 
travel. 
For automobile traffic alone it would 
seem that a cement concrete road 
would be best. This, however, is prob- 
ably not practicable when mixed traf- 
fic is to be considered. It would, 
doubtless, be too slippery for horses. 
Under the present stimulus, some suit- 
able finish for the surface may be dis- 
covered which will meet this objection. 
In and around Boston experiments 
have been made with a tar preparation 
called “Tarvia,” using it as a binder 
for the surface of macadam roads. The 
By J. A. Pettigrew, Superintendent of Parks 
material is poured on hot, after thor- 
oughly sweeping the road and remov- 
ing all loose material. Or it is applied, 
preferably, to roads under construction 
just before the final coat of screenings 
is laid and while the macadam shows 
interstices between its particles, after 
which a coat of screenings is well 
rolled in. The result in the main has 
been satisfactory. The cost for the 
tar laid is about 2 or 2 1-2 cents per 
square yard, not including screenings 
or rollings. 
The automobile, too, has brought an 
infliction of dust on country lanes and 
waysides. It has made living almost 
unendurable, while, in suburban dis- 
tricts, conditions in spite of watering 
are not much better. To meet the 
dust nuisance the Boston Park Depart- 
ment has been experimenting with 
crude petroleum. About twelve miles 
of driveway were treated last year, in 
the latter part of August to the middle 
of September. Texas oil was used. It 
has a base of asphaltum, and is better 
suited for the purpose than the Penn- 
sylvania product. An emulsion was 
made containing about 65 per cent of 
oil. From this stock the watering 
carts were supplied, using about 150 
gallons to each tank of 600 gallons, 
making an application to the roads of 
about 16 per cent at each sprinkling. 
From four to five sprinklings were 
found to be sufficient to saturate the 
1-8 of an inch covering of fine screen- 
ings previously applied and rolled to 
dust. The net amount of oil applied 
per square yard was about i 1-4 pints; 
the cost per mile $238. This sufficed to 
lay the dust until the snow fell. A 
quantity of oil still remains on the 
roads, which, it is expected, will be 
reinforced to full effectiveness at less 
■cost than the original application. 
On the whole, the experiment has 
been successful in laying the dust 
twenty-four hours per day, not six or 
seven, as it is under the usual condi- 
tions of watering, for a period of about 
three months. The oil, too, seems to 
preserve the surface of the road, and 
storms do not wash and gully the sur- 
face so much as under ordinary condi- 
tions. 
While no close figures have been 
made, there seems to be no doubt but 
that a saving in road maintenance will 
be effected on the roads treated. The 
emulsion used was the Cook formula : 
50 lbs. of soap to too gallons of oil, 
emulsified by the use of a steam pump. 
The cost of considerable delay conse- 
quent on experimental work is includ- 
ed in the figures above mentioned, 
which will be somewhat reduced in 
future work. 
