PARK AND CEMETERY. 
‘268 
the effects of the gnawing of horses 
and many from other causes. Young 
trees are doing well and the abuttors 
are doing their duty by them. A crew 
of five men was employed destroying- 
brown tail moths from Feb. 4th to 
April 20th. The work of the depart- 
ment was as follows : Dead and dan- 
gerous trees removed, 107; trees 
trimmed from orders, 1,742 ; new trees 
guarded, 407 ; tree guards repaired, 208. 
The trees on si.xteen streets weie given 
a systematic pruning. 
During the past year two-thirds of 
the roadways in Prospect Park, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., were reconstructed with 
gravel and the remaining drives were 
put in thorough repair. The bridle 
paths in the park were recoated with 
gravel. Asphalt tiles are replacing 
148,000 square feet of old tar walks. 
Nearly a thousand dead or diseased 
trees were removed from the park. 
Two miles of the main roadway on 
the Ocean parkway was rebuilt with 
Hudson river road gravel. 
In the annual report of the park 
commissioners of Malden, Mass., ref- 
erence is made to the purchase of the 
Ameringe field, about to be made, and 
its addition to Clifton grove, making 
a large park for the west side of the 
city. There was also a purchase of a 
large tract of land to be added to the 
historic Bell Rock reservation. Fred- 
erick Law Olmsted, Jr., has been com- 
missioned to design a plan for the lay- 
ing out of Bell Rock and Arthur A. 
Shurtleff is making plans for the de- 
velopment of the West Side play- 
ground and Webster playground. 
The first tree planting has been done 
in the new' ground in Grant Park, on 
the lake front, Chicago. The stock 
was furnished by the Peterson Nur- 
sery. 
In the big orchid collection in Lin- 
coln Park conservatory in Chicago, al- 
most 1,000 plants are in flower. Head 
Gardener Alois Frey declares it is the 
largest public collection of orchids in 
the world. The orchids belonging to 
the park are supplemented by the ex- 
tensive collection of Harry G. Sel- 
fridge, including many rare varieties. 
A large basket hanging from the roof 
contains a single plant of Cattleya 
Trianae, now bearing between thirty and 
forty blossoms. There are four types 
of the extremely rare Laelia Anceps 
The 38th annual report of the Board 
of Park Commissioners of Buffalo 
shows expenditures during the year of 
$239,041.92. Particular attention is di- 
rected in the report to the destruction 
of flowers, plants and trees at the South 
Park conservatory and the grounds 
surrounding it by the poisonous gases 
and smoke emitted by the railroad en- 
gines and the industrial plants in that 
vicinity. The report states that in the 
very near future it will be necessary to 
remove the gardens, a step that has long 
been urged by Director Cowell. 
Estimates for the park and boulevard 
department of Detroit have been made 
for this season’s work. The advent of 
the auto has rendered harder roads 
necessary on Belle Isle Park. For 
these roads $20,000 will be asked and 
$25,000 for resurfacing the boulevard. 
For the new bath house at Belle Isle 
$5,000 will be required for a sand 
beach, and $2,000 for walks and 
grounds. 
Improvements costing $82,845.29 have 
been made in the parks of Milwaukee 
during the year 1907, exclusive of the 
$66,473.39 expended in the maintenance 
of the system. Two hundred and 
eighty-four acres of new park property 
has been purchased, making a total of 
817 acres of park lands now owned by 
the city. The improvements include a 
beach drive at Lake Park, costing 
$2,002.25 and grading the new athletic 
field, extending the playgrounds, sod- 
ding and planting shrubs and laying 
sewers and water pipe at that park, the 
total improvements at Lake Park cost- 
ing $4,654.54. 
Alba, a white orchid with slender pe- 
tals, and numerous examples of other 
branches of the Laelia group. 
In the suit of the South Park Com- 
missioners of Chicago to enjoin Mont- 
gomery Ward from prosecuting his suit 
to prevent them from erecting the 
Field Museum in Grant Park, Judge 
Dupuy said the court would not enjoin 
Ward from prosecuting his suit if any 
buildings were erected which were not 
consistent with park purposes. He, 
however, held that the commission has 
the power and right to erect in Grant 
Park legitimate park buildings ; that 
the injunctions hitherto obtained by 
Ward do not forbid such structures. 
At the same time the court did not 
pass on the question whether the pro- 
posed museum is a legitimate park 
building, though intimating strongly 
that it is. This leaves the matter still 
undecided. The park commissioners, 
however, have signed a contract for the 
erection of the building and are going 
ahead with their preparations. 
^ ^ 
Records of the Department of Parks 
of New York City give some interest- 
ing figures. It is shown that the orig- 
inal cost of the parks, which number 
113, was about $60,456,000, and they 
are worth now nearly twenty times as 
much as at the dates of their purehase. 
The numerous parks vary in size from 
a small fraction of an acre at the junc- 
tion of streets to 1,756 acres in Pelham 
Bay Park, the most extensive in the 
city, and forming a grand system 
through the Parkway that connects it 
with Bronx Park, 661 acres, which, in 
its turn, is connected on the west by 
Mosholu Parkway with Van Cortlandt 
Park, 1,132 acres. South of these 
throughout the Bronx and Manhattan 
Island are ninety-two parks, remark- 
ably evenly distributed, offering ready 
access from every portion of the entire 
surrounding territory all the way down 
to the Battery. Manhattan, with its 
more congested population, naturally 
has the most parks, which number forty- 
eight, with Central Park, 843 acres, 
leading. Brooklyn Borough, with thir- 
ty-eight parks, comes next, with Pros- 
pect Park, of 516 acres, at the head of 
the list. The Bronx has the greatest 
park acreage, with seventeen parks ; 
then comes Queens, with seven, fol- 
lowed by Richmond, with three. 
* * * 
A lack of harmony appears to have 
entered in the park board of Tacoma, 
Wash., which resulted in some resigna- 
tions and reconsiderations, and what 
was more distasteful to the public, the 
removal from office of Superintendent 
E. R. Roberts. This was evidently a 
blunder on the part of the board, be- 
cause pressure of public opinion seems 
to have led, in a very short time, to his 
reinstatement. Mr. Roberts has un- 
questionably done much for the Ta- 
coma parks during his years of faithful 
service, and has earned the good will 
of his fellow citizens. There was, of 
course, considerable adverse criticism 
of his methods and acts by those not 
in accord with them, but this will serve 
as a guide and will enable him to trim 
his sails for further usefulness. 
it! * 
The Committee on the Library of the 
Lower House is still holding hearings 
on the question of changing the site 
Continued on page VII. 
PARK NEWS. 
