93 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
1:4!s 
PARK NEWS. 
The zoo in the City Park at Denver 
is said to have the largest open bear pit 
of any zoo in the world. Some of the 
trees for the exercise of the bears are 
fifty feet high. Wolves and coyotes are 
in this enclosure with the bears. | The 
aviary and the buffalo herd are also said 
to be the largest in the world. 
He Jfc * 
Major R. M. Venable, president of 
the park board of Baltimore, in an offi- 
cial statement to the mayor of that 
city says that four hundred acres have 
been added to the park system during 
the last four years at a cost of $375,- 
000. One hundred thousand of this sum 
was a special appropriation for Wyman 
Park. The rest of it came out of the 
$1,000,000 loan which was approved in 
1905. A new loan is soon to be sub- 
mitted to popular vote to raise $1,000,- 
000 for further extension and develop- 
ment. 
* * * 
It is reported that unless the street 
department of Hartford, Conn., prepares 
at once for an active campaign of spray- 
ing, there is a grave possibility that 
many of the magnificent elms which 
are the pride of the city will be de- 
stroyed or seriously weakened by the 
elm tree beetle. Last year in the mid- 
dle of the summer, hundreds of stately 
elms were thus denuded, until they 
looked as though a frost blight had fel- 
len upon them. The work will have to 
be done by special appropriation and it 
is estimated will cost $1,500. 
* * 
One of the most useful activities 
of the London county council has 
been in the extension of the park 
system of the metropolis, which now 
includes, under the management of 
the council, nearly 5,000 acres. The 
acquirement and development has cost 
about $8,500,000, and the annual 
charge for maintenance comes to 
$565,000, which adds abount a half- 
penny in the pound to the rates, or 
about two-tenths of 1 per cent. The 
cost includes the salaries of an out- 
door staff of 843 men and women. 
The council came into existence in 
1889, and succeeded to the metropoli- 
tan board of public works in the care 
of the parks, but of course with larger 
powers. In all 57 new parks have 
been added since then, out of the 
total of 101 that come under the coun- 
cil’s management. 
A plan to save the parkways of the 
west side system of Chicago from the 
encroachments of the manufacturing 
districts will be tried by Superintendent 
Jens Jensen on Jackson boulevard be- 
tween Green and Aberdeen streets. The 
entire width of the sidewalk and park- 
ways will be paved with cement. The 
trees will be set in openings five feet 
square and the roots will be protected 
by iron gratings. A system of irriga- 
tion will enable them to resist the 
smoke-laden atmosphere which has 
killed the trees on other boulevards in 
manufacturing districts. On Jackson 
boulevard the parkways have been aban- 
doned as far east as Green street and 
on Washington boulevard as far as Hal- 
sted street. 
“We hope by the new plan,” Mr. Jen- 
s.en said, “to give that distinction to 
Jackson boulevard which is essential to 
mark the difference between a boulevard 
and the ordinary city street. As soon 
as you cease to have trees you no long- 
er have a boulevard. It is impossible 
to maintain grass plats, but we can still 
have the trees. The plan has worked 
successfully in Berlin and other cities 
in • Europe, but as far as I know has 
never been tried in the United States.” 
* * * 
The Legislature of Illinois has passed 
three bills affecting the elaborate park 
improvements planned for Chicago. 
They are : 
House Bill 806 — Authorizing the city 
council of Chicago to permit the erec- 
tion of a bridge to carry out the plan 
for the Lake front connecting boulevard 
systems prepared by D. H. Burnham. 
House Bill 807 — Authorizing the com- 
missioners of Lincoln park to issue $1,- 
000,000 bonds for this improvement. 
House Bill No. 818 — Authorizing the 
city council of Chicago to construct and 
maintain surface and elevated ways and 
turn the same over to public park cor- 
porate authorities. 
Actual work on the lake front park- 
way project authorized has been begun 
by the beard of South Park commis- 
sioners. The prospect is that the pre- 
liminary surveys and negotiations will 
be completed by the end of the summer, 
when it will be possible to begin mak- 
ing land along the lake shore from 
Grant to Jackson Park. The steps tak- 
en by the board were : President Fore- 
man and Supt. Foster were directed to 
make a complete survey of the strip of 
submerged land which will be converted 
into the proposed parkway. They were 
also directed to investigate the value of 
the riparian rights held by the Illinois 
Central and other shore owners as a 
basis for the purchase negotiations. The 
Commercial club was invited to appoint 
a committee to advise with the board 
in the prosecution of the work. 
He * * 
From the Annual Reports 
The park commissioners of Omaha, 
Neb., have issued a handsomely illus- 
trated and complete report of the parks 
of that city which gives brief historical 
descriptions, tells of the work of the 
year, and gives detailed statistics of the 
parks, their cost and other interesting 
facts, including a list of the trees and 
shrubs and a handsome map of the en- 
tire system. Plans have been prepared 
for an addition to the pavilion in Riv- 
erview Park which has proved too 
small. A lake has been excavated in 
Miller Park and plans for the develop- 
ment of Kountze Park prepared. The 
report of Supt. W. R. Adams gives a 
detailed statement of the improvements 
made in each of the several tracts. He 
reports that the application of gas resi- 
duum or tar made on some portions of 
the boulevards for laying dust and kill- 
ing weeds has been satisfactory. The 
total expenditures for the year amount- 
ed to $28,968. 
In the Eighteenth Annual Report of 
the Park Commissioners of New Haven, 
Conn., Superintendent Gustave X. Am- 
rhyn tells of much work of forest clear- 
ing done in West Rock Park, which is 
to be followed by the planting of pines, 
hemlocks, etc. On Edgewood Park a 
new skating pond was excavated an ad- 
ditional apparatus installed in the chil- 
dren’s playground. A new bath house 
for men was built in Fort Hale Park. 
The total expenditures for the year 
were $34,053. Detailed statistics of the 
cost, area, improvement, etc., of the 
different parks are given. 
The annual report of the park board 
of St. Paul tells of , the building of a 
temporary steel bridge in Phalen Park 
and the erection of a new concrete pa- 
vilion in Como Park at a cost of $38,- 
794. Excessive rains caused an over- 
flow of Lake Como which -resulted in 
much damage to the shore planting and 
driveway and the superintendent rec- 
ommends -the raising of the roadbed 
and shore line above the lake level, 
which is estimated to cost $10,000. The 
West Side Bluff Boulevard was en- 
larged by an addition of fifteen acres. 
A report on the public playground work 
is included. The total expenditures for 
the year were $99,830. 
