PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XVII Chicago, November, 1907 No. 9 
The Joint Meeting of the Improvement Associations 
The full program of the joint meeting of the American 
Civic Association and hte National Municipal League, to 
be held in Providence, R. I., November 19-32, has come to 
hand. In variety of subjects to be discussed and magnitude of 
program it will be the most important convention ever held 
in view of the wide range of improvement matters to be 
brought to the attention of the present. While each asso- 
ciation holds separate meetings in the interests of its special 
work, there are several joint sessions at which discussions 
on questions of general interest will be in order. The preser- 
vation of Niagara Falls, the billboard nuisance, forest reser- 
vation, school gardens in connection with educational work 
in the large cities, public parks and children’s playgrounds 
will be prominent features of the convention of the Ameri- 
can Civic Association, while the National Municipal League 
will push its battle for betterment in the vast field open 
for such work in our immense country. We hope and 
expect that there will be a very large attendance. 
Progress in Forestry 
In view of the latest report of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, chief 
forester, in which he gives a gloomy outlook for the future 
of the lumber interests unless prompt measures are taken 
to check the depletion of the forests or to keep up the sup- 
ply, the forestry question becomes one of the most important 
before the American people. It is, however, gratifying to 
note that forest work in the state made greater advance dur- 
ing 1906 than in any previous year. More than twenty states 
now have forest officers and some ten have state forest reser- 
vations, and in such states as have taken up the matter seri- 
ously, the engrossing importance of the forest question has 
seized upon the authorities and practical energy is a marked 
feature of present progress. It is exceedingly interesting 
to study the details of the movement in the states actively 
engaged in forest preservation and replanting, and it 
would permanently increase public interest, to be fol- 
lowed by public activity, if in this vastly important factor 
of our economics a campaign of education could be inaugu- 
rated and encouraged to give a better understanding of all 
that is involved in our forest problems. 
' 
Retrenchment and New York’s Small Parks. 
Early in the month Mayor McClellan, of New York, intro- 
duced resolutions before the Board of Estimates providing 
for the abandonment of all proceedings to secure sites for 
public parks in the several boroughs. This is one measure 
in the policy of retrenchment in municipal expenditures, and 
the resblutions were referred to the comptroller. This does 
not mean that these additions to the park system will be wiped 
off the map, because when the financial condition of the city 
improves they can be taken up again, but the mayor pointed- 
ly asserts not in the way in which they have been exploited. 
He proposes that the surrounding property benefited by these 
parks must be assessed for the improvements, and that they 
must not be made a charge upon the city at large. It is also 
notorious that in many cases positive frauds have been per- 
petrated in obtaining sites for small parks, and it is claimed 
that private negotiations for purchase have been far more 
satisfactory than condemnation proceedings. Then, again. 
property values are increasing so enormously and rapidly in 
certain of the boroughs that it is well nigh impossible to make 
estimates that will remain standard for any time. New York 
has proved beyond question the immense increase in property 
values arising from the establishment of the parks, and as 
has been strongly urged upon all municipalities delinquent in 
park making, that the surrounding properties might reason- 
ably be compelled to pay at least in large part for such im- 
provements. Some eight proposed parks and extensions are 
affected by the intrenchment scheme in New York, covering 
an estimated cost of over .$5,000,000, and of course it has 
caused considerable criticism, both from those anxious for 
park extension as a public necessity and from the politicians 
and their satellites. It leaves the way open, however, to take 
the matter up again under improved conditions and with the 
probability of eliminating a large amount of graft. The im- 
provements will be needed, and it will be interesting to watch 
the future of these park sites. 
Washington’s Historic Trees 
A storm of virtuous indignation has been aroused in Wash- 
ington, D. C., over the proposed destruction of certain his- 
toric trees to make room for the Grant Monument. Not 
alone in Washington has puolic feeling been forcibly ex- 
pressed, but from many parts of the country the proposition 
has been vigorously denounced. In the great scheme for 
the improvement of Washington, proposed by the commis- 
sion appointed by Congress some six years ago, consisting 
of some of our most eminent men, it is designed to make 
the botanic gardens a broad thoroughfare to the Mall, with 
possible embellishments after the style of the Place de la 
Concorde, Paris. The immediate cause of the outburst was 
that in making ready to commence work on the foundations 
for the Grant monument, which promises to be one of the 
most important of the public statues of Washington, the site 
as determined upon in accordance with the great scheme 
necessitated the destruction or removal of a number of his- 
toric trees, including one planted by Washington himself. 
The order had been issued by the officer in charge of opera- 
tions to cut down the trees in question when Mr. William R. 
Smith, the well known superintendent of the gardens for 
fifty years, appealed to the press which led to an injunction 
being obtained to restrain any injury to the trees until the 
question is thrashed out. It is naturally quite an important 
question and the wide-spread interest created demonstrates 
most unmistakably the growing regard for trees, in the pub- 
lic mind ; and this is as it should be. Of course there is 
the other side, as to whether greater public improvements 
should be checked or diverted to spare even historic trees, 
when historic buildings of greater peculiar interest have to 
come down in the cause of progress. Nevertheless it re- 
mains true that no such trees should be destroyed if it can 
possibly be avoided, and no groups of trees with such asso- 
ciations as those connected with these Washington trees 
should be, under any circumstances, sacrificed, if change of 
plans not materially affecting the whole sclieme can be made. 
In the present case it would seem certain that a site could 
readily be found for the Grant monument quite as satisfactory 
as the one chosen which involves so great a sacrifice. We 
cannot afford to lose one beautiful tree if it can be avoided, 
and it is most gratifying to realize that the love of trees 
both for their beauty and worth is now a constantly -growing 
sentiment. 
