PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Vol. XVIII Chicago, August, 1908 No. 6 
The Cost of New Parks 
Many years ago when progressive writers and thinkers began 
to urge the acquisition of land for future park purposes, the 
narrow-minded citizenship, in the majority, derided the propo- 
sition and in a general way checked it. The same is almost 
true today, although the advantages of the parks, their ac- 
knowleged necessity for the health and welfare of the people, 
and the fact that they actually increase values, have in great 
measure nullified the stereotyped arguments of the radical op- 
ponents of progressive park making. Within reason, and we 
are far from the limits of reasonableness yet, there are, per- 
haps, no larger profit-paying expenditures on a city’s books 
than its park expenses, and this from both the ethical and com- 
mercial points of view. And the creation of small parks in 
the congested districts of our cities is the effort to satisfy a 
crying need, and will be far more than amply justified in the 
higher plane of citizenship which will mark the coming genera- 
tion. 
^ 
Spring and Fall Flower Shows 
The forthcoming National Flower Show to be held in Chi- 
cago in the Fall brings to mind the question, why should flower 
shows always be postponed until late in the year, and why are 
spring flower exhibitions neglected opportunities? In Europe 
Spring flower shows are quite common, and often most elabo- 
• rate in their settings and in the material brought together, as, 
for instance, the Paris exhibition, held in May last, which was 
a magnificent affair. There is surely no other country on the 
globe better able than ours to furnish the material for Spring 
flower displays in all the important centers, and the season 
is a most inspiring one, well calculated to create more or less 
enthusiasm among flower lovers, with the possibility of quicker 
results from an educational standpoint. While, perhaps, it is 
true that we are a flower loving people, yet a large part of 
the common education in this line comes through florists 
catalogues, and it would be of great practical advantage to 
numbers of people in the cause of outdoor improvement if such 
opportunities as spring flower shows were available, and from 
a business standpoint advantages can be seen. Certainly our 
parks, at least, might take this matter up and add another 
valuable function to their great usefulness. 
Wild Flowers for Parks and Cemeteries 
To the intelligent observer of both our park and cemetery 
planting it is evident that the most is not made of wild flower- 
ing plants and shrubs. Some one has recently noted that in 
a European flower catalogue, a number of our American com- 
mon wild flowers were listed at strong p-ices which tends to 
show that the beauty of our native flowers is becoming appre- 
ciated abroad. There is no question as to our being abun- 
dantlv provided with valuable wild flowers and plants and prac- 
ticallv in all sections of the country; and there are probably 
very few localities where special varieties are not to be ob- 
tained. Then there is no end to the variety; mountain and 
valley, swamp and plain, offer a bounteous supply of planting 
material, whether for floral effect or border planting, and most 
of it benefits by cultivation. It would vastly add to all plant- 
ing schemes in parks and cemeteries, to include an ample dis- 
play of the local flora, for the wild flowers have a fascination 
for young and old, and our wild shrubs are sufficiently defined 
in habit, form and color, to create in combination exquisite 
effects. More use should be made of this material so abundant 
and ready to hand. 
^ ^ ^ 
The Remuneration of Playground Instructors 
A printed suggestion contained in the fourth annual report 
of the Playground Committee of St. Paul, Minn., is that con- 
cerning the pay of the play directors and instructors at the 
several grounds. The report is a very gratifying one, un- 
questionably fortifying the conclusion that public playgrounds 
fill a decided need in a c'ty's welfare, 1)ut it also emphasizes 
the fact that a proper remuneration must be paid to compe- 
tent teachers and directors in order to secure all the good to 
be obtained. It does not pay to liave experienced persons 
resigning on account of inadequate compensation. We think 
it will be found that the playground addition to our public 
school system will eventual^' prove one of the best stimulants 
to mental growth, and consequently to capacity for education, 
ever considered, but it will call for gifted instructors and 
supervisors and these Avill be hard to find under poor pay 
conditions.. A liberal policy must prevail to secure success 
in this promising line of work. 
Character in Cemetery Memorials 
If it could only be appreciated how a cemetery memorial 
suggests the character of the memorialized, or those provid- 
ing it, what a change would come about in cemetery monu- 
ments ! Our late ex-president, Grover Cleveland, who gained 
larger public esteem for his sterling qualities as time passed 
along, in his will de.sired for his grave only a simple monu- 
ment and Ijrief inscription. After all the monument is but a 
poor expression either of the grief of the living, or the re- 
nown of the dead, and if it w’ere not so, what a funny place 
a cemeterv would be ! But simplicity does not mean cheap- 
ness either in quality or art, and if it is desiralile to expend 
large sums in cemetery memorials, true art may be relied upon 
to idealize character and grief in simplicity and truth, and thus 
add to the beauty of the grave lot and its surroundings. 
^ 
The War on Pernicious Insects 
The apparent rapid spread or develoiunent of destructive m 
sect pests on our trees and shrubs, w'hile tilarming, is not neces- 
sarily beyond the expectation of successful combat. In the 
past comparatively little attention was given to this question, 
while today it is accorded a leading place in horticulture, and 
constant warfare is being made to minimize tlie dam.age done 
and to destroy the cause. Whetlier drastic laws are necessary 
to compel every individual to take care of the trees and 
shrubs under liis control is a mooted question, but in the jiro- 
posed agricultural instruction destined to become ;i p.'irt of 
our common school eductition, destructive insects, and the 
agencies to destroy them, should he made an import, -int fe.;i- 
turc. Our young people, with such instruction to guide them, 
might become a very effective insect police, materially aiding 
in the general warfare' upon such iiestA, 
