240 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Lawn Making in Reclaimed Park Area 
One of the most interesting problems 
met with in developing the land for a new 
park was encountered in the work of de- 
veloping a twenty-four acre park at Wil- 
mette, 111. Particularly interesting methods 
were used in the treatment of the soil 
which makes up this park, and the descrip- 
tion of this w'ork may be of assistance to 
others who have a like problem. 
Some years ago the Sanitary District of 
Chicago, in excavating for a drainage 
channel from Lake Michigan at a point 
in Wilmette down through Evanston to 
join the north branch of the Chicago 
River, were required by their contract with 
Evanston and Wilmette to remove all the 
spoil from these villages. In acquiring the 
right of way for their channel, they found 
it necessary to take over certain frontages 
with riparian rights adjoining the intake 
of the canal. They thereupon built a break- 
water in the lake far enough out to take 
all of the spoil from the sections of the 
channel through the tw'o towns mentioned. 
In this way they reclaimed about twentv 
acres of land. The top of this twenty 
acres was of course the bottom excavation 
of the channel and was hard blue clay. 
The wonderful location of this filled 
ground jutting out as it did into Lake 
Michigan about four or five hundred feet 
beyond the main shore line and extending 
about thirteen hundred feet north and 
south suggested to the minds of the Park 
Commissioners of Wilmette that it would 
make an ideal park site and after some 
negotiation and by an act of the Illinois 
legislature, with the co-operation of the 
Sanitary District Board of Trustees the 
area was turned over to the Park District 
of Wilmette. To the lay minds the ob- 
stacles presented in transforming this pile 
of clay, wdiich had ridges and valleys mak- 
ing differences in elevation of approximate- 
ly fifteen or twenty feet, seemed to present 
difficulties that might be impossible to 
overcome, inasmuch as the bonding power 
of the district would have made possible 
only the covering of this area with black 
dirt (without any further development) 
the estimated cost of which would be 
somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000. 
Benjamin E. Gage, landscape architect 
of Chicago, was called into consultation at 
that time, and after a thorough investiga- 
tion of the conditions, his report to the 
commissioners stated that he believed that 
three years treatment of the clay would 
bring it to a condition where seed might 
be planted with reasonable certainty of ob- 
taining a good lawn. Based on these rec- 
ommendations, the work was undertaken, 
and has been going on for three years. 
The first plowing of the area was ac- 
complished b}" using a road breaking plow 
with three teams and men to weight down 
the plowshare. The last plowing which 
took place this fall was accomplished with 
a medium sized farm team and an ordi- 
nary farm plow with the reins over the 
plow man's shoulders, as is customary in 
farm work. The surface for at least four 
inches is good, mellow, reasonably dark 
colored friable soil, and according to the 
Department of Agronomy at our State 
Lhiiversity, is capable of producing prac- 
tically any kind of a crop. 
The methods pursued in accomplishing 
this change consisted of plowing and grad- 
ing each time applying straw manure to 
keep the chunks of clay spread so that the 
elements with freezing and thawing and 
the rays of the sun might penetrate to the 
greatest depth. Added to this of course 
was deep pulverizing with a disc harrow 
and working with special tooth drags and 
levelers. The crops used were two each 
year plowing under in the summer such 
as field peas and oats which furnished part 
of the seed for the next crop, also millet, 
rye, sweet clover, and cow peas. The thick- 
ly matted tops of the pea crops furnish- 
ing the chemical properties which the soil 
needed in conjunction with the inoculation 
of the seed and the deep roots of the 
clover crop tended to break up the soil to 
C. S. Harrison, the horticulturist of 
York, Neb., whose monographs on the 
peony, phlox, iris and the evergreen have 
been reviewed in these pages, has just pub- 
lished another volume of essays on horti- 
culture and kindred topics. His new book 
is entitled, “The Gospel of Beauty and In- 
a greater depth. The grading of the park 
area has been accomplished by the use of 
a road grader and is in condition to put 
on a disc harrow. Into the roughness left 
by the disc will be spread pulverized lime- 
stone using a street sand spreader. This 
will have a tendency to sweeten the soil. 
In addition to this fine straw stable manure 
will be put on, using a manure spreader 
equipped with a chopping device. All that 
will be necessary in the spring will be to 
run o\er the grade with a street sweeper 
after which the seed will be put in. It 
may be necessary to go over the grade 
lightly with rakes to cover seed. 
Instead of about $40,000.00 which would 
have been taken to put black soil over this 
area the whole work is being accomplished 
in such a way as to obtain the same re- 
sults including all the grading of the area 
for approximately $5,000.00. 
Our illustration of the plan shows the 
proposed landscape treatment for this park 
area. The lighting system is in, work is 
progressing on the water and drainage 
systems, and suitable nursery stock is now 
being planted. 
telligence in Trees.” The titles of some of 
the essays which will give an idea of the 
contents of the book are as follows : 
“Wealth in Trees and Flowers,” “Flowers 
as Teachers,” “Flower Missions,” “Afield 
with God,” “The Wonderful Influence of 
Flowers,” “A Garden Education for Chil- 
PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RECLAIMED PARK, WILMETTE, ILL. 
Benjamin E. Gage, Landscape Architect. 
Books and Publications 
