397 
1 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
acre tract on Lake Calhoun, a delight- 
ful luncheon was served, and the after- 
noon meeting held in the club rooms. 
Mr. C. M. Loring extended the greet- 
ings on behalf of the Commercial Club 
in an inspiring little speech, in which 
he paid tribute to the work the park 
men are doing and told something of the 
beginnings of the work for civic beauty 
in Minneapolis. 
The members before beginning the 
business of this session, expressed by a 
rising vote their appreciation of the 
courtesies extended here. 
The business session was opened by 
a thorough, interesting and carefully 
prepared paper on “Oiling and Dust 
Laying,’’ by M. H. West, superintendent 
of Lincoln Park, Chicag r. Mr. West 
spoke as follows ; 
Oiling and Dust Laying 
Perhaps no problem in years has been of 
such vital consequence, or has proven so 
baffling in' its solution to the park superin- 
tendent or engineer as has been the problem 
of maintaining park drives and boulevards 
against the excessive conditions brought 
about by modern modes of traffic. But a 
few years ago the macadam road seemed to 
have reached a point in its evolution where 
further development seemed well nigh un- 
necessary. Today, hundreds of miles of these 
same roadways lie ravelled and torn while 
municipal officers and park men neither 
have at their command funds adequate to 
repair the damage, nor knowledge suf- 
ficient to go at the w'ork systematically or 
with an3'’ degree of assurance that their 
efforts will be of avail. 
The matter of dust abatement is a prob- 
lem which can easily be met. If this were 
the only difficulty confronting us, an easy 
and pleasant solution would be to proceed as 
before the advent of the motor, and sprinkle 
our roads w’ith w'ater, for probably no pave- 
ment so well serves its purpose on park 
drives as ordinary well sprinkled macadam. 
It facilitates comfort and safety in driving 
and motoring by giving a foothold to horses 
as well as prevents motor’s from skidding. 
It produces little noise, is inexpensive to 
build and repair. Sprinkling with water 
gives a refreshing and cool effect in sum- 
mer, and has a beneficial influence on near- 
bj’ vegetation. The road has a pleasing 
color, is easy to clean, and after all seems 
to be the only natural and proper pavement 
with which parks should be inflicted. 
It has been w’ith the idea of so construct- 
ing macadam roads that they would be able 
to withstand the onslaughts of motors with- 
out resorting to the use of asphaltic binders 
that a number of experiments have been con- 
ducted on the Lincoln Park System during 
the last three years. Stone of various kinds 
and sizes has been employed, laid and rolled 
in various ways, and top dressed with dif- 
ferent kinds of screenings and sand. 
Without going into the details of the fail- 
ures and partial successes, I would say that 
the best results in this direction were 
achieved by the following method. The road 
to be resurfaced was first scarified and re- 
shaped. after which a layer of three-inch 
limestone macadam w'as spread upon the 
surface and rolled thoroughly, while fine 
limestone screenings’ were washed into the 
interstices. The road was then allowed to 
dry out, after w'hich torpedo sand or one- 
quarter-inch screenings, with the fine part 
removed, were spread over the road, and 
rolled lightly with a six-ton roller. The- 
theory of this method was that the shifting 
coarse sand or screenings would give off 
little or no dust even when dry, while at the 
same time, the fine limestone binder with 
which the voids of the road had been filled 
would be protected. The large size of the 
stone on the other hand would form an an- 
chorage sufficient to resist the ac-tion of 
automobiles. 
As a matter of fact, this particular piece 
of road of which about one mile was laid, 
came out after a year’s hard usage in even 
better condition than many pieces of road 
with protected surfaces, while macadam, 
laid in the ordinary way, using one and one- 
half-inch stone and binding in the usual 
manner, barely remained in place long 
enough to allow the road crew to get out of 
sight. By frequent and judicious sprink- 
ing, applying only enough water to lay the 
dust and keep the pavement moist, and by 
keeping the coarse material worked back in- 
to the road from the gutters, where it ha? 
a tendency to collect, such a road may give 
excellent results where not subjected to 
heavy motor traffic in early spring. It is. 
however, during the alternate freezes and 
thaw^s of this season of the year that ex- 
treme havoc is wrought by heavy fast-mov- 
ing motor cars. Small depressions in the 
road become filled with water, which soft- 
ens and loosens the surrounding material, 
enabling the car to enlarge the depres- 
sion until by the time the road gangs start 
out in the spring the boulevards present a 
badly torn and dilapidated aspect. It is 
possible that in large cities, especiallj' near 
manufacturing plants, the presence of car- 
bonic acid gas in the air tends to have a 
solvent effect on macadam, especially when 
limestone is employed. 
By closely watching the effects on road i 
surfaces, caused by various non-slipping tire \ 
devices used by motorists to prevent injury 
to themselves and others on treacherous j 
EXOTIC BORDER PLANTING. LORING PARK, MINNE APOLIS. 
