PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Vol. XIX Chicago, June, 1909 No. 4 
Railroads and the Timber Supply 
The leading railroads of the country are rapidly falling 
into line to aid in reforestation, in which the Forestry 
section of the Agricultural Department is doing such 
great work. Railroad managers are realizing that to 
plant their available property, in suitable localities, with 
classes of trees that will in due time supply their require- 
ments for ties and other timber, when in a very few years 
such tracts may be made to pay expenses, is a business 
ptoposition worthy of immediate consideration. In other 
ways, besides the merely commercial one, such a move- 
ment on the part of the railroads will aid immensely in 
reclaiming treeless sections. 
Ng 
Illinois State Art Commission 
A State Art Commission bill enacted recently by the 
Illinois legislature has been signed by the governor. It 
provides that the governor shall appoint two architects, 
two painters, two sculptors and two other persons, to con- 
stitute a State Art Commission to act in an advisory 
capacity on the artistic character of any building or any 
work of art to be placed on state property. The gov- 
ernor is also a member ex-officio. This is a good begin- 
ning so far as Illinois is concerned, and is a timely and 
■progressive act. Doubtless the recent acrimonious dis- 
cussion over the design of the Illinois soldiers’ monument, 
to be erected at Andersonville, had a strong influence in 
hastening this bill through a legislature remarkable for 
the very little it has accomplished for the public good. 
Ng Ng 
Progress of Cremation 
No greater evidence that “the wmrld do move” could be 
registered than in the progress in the movement in favor 
of cremation. Views even among the most conservative 
are yielding to the pressure of the broader intelligence of 
'Our twentieth century civilization. In the “Catholic 
Encyclopedia,” now in course of publication, appears the 
following in conclusion of the article on Cremation: “In 
conclusion it must be remembered that there is nothing 
directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the prac- 
tice of cremation, and that, if even the leaders of this 
sinister movement so far control the governments of the 
world as to make this custom universal, it would not be a 
lapse in the faith confided to her were she obliged to 
conform,” 
Vig 
Playgrounds Congress 
At the third annual congress of the Playground Associa- 
tion of America at Pittsburg, Pa., last month, delegates 
from some forty cities were present, among them many 
■prominent persons interested in this important feature of 
our present-day educational ideas. Among the topics dis- 
cussed ■were: 
Story Telling on the Playgrounds; Playground Sta- 
tistics; Playground Equipment; Normal Courses in Play, 
etc. Chicago viras well represented, its position as perhaps 
the most advanced city in the world in its work of estab- 
lishing small parks and playgrounds, giving particular 
value to its .experiences and suggestions. Any community 
can W'ell afford to take up this question and add a syste- 
matized scheme of play to its common school curriculum; 
the results in a very few years would be beyond valuation 
in both the mental and physical development of the chil- 
dren and would redound to the honor of its promoters. As 
Professor Graham Taylor, of Chicago Commons, well ob- 
serves: “The child is coming to be as much of a civic 
problem, as it ever has been a family problem. Upon the 
normality of its children the strength and perpetuity of 
the state depend, as surely as the dependency and delin- 
quency of its children undermine the prowess and menace 
the life of the state.” 
N? 
Care and Maintenance of Mausoleums 
The increasing number of mausoleums, the consequent 
effect upon their construction of present-day competition, 
and the threatening invasion of concrete as a substitute for 
stone, makes it all the more important that suitable and 
comprehensive rules and regulations should be established 
for the proper construction of such structures, as well as 
for the adequate provision of funds for their future main- 
tenance. The large amounts usually expended by those 
able to afford such cemetery memorials, should give the 
fullest degree of confidence in their permanency, but ex- 
perience, in practically every cemetery in which mauso- 
leums have stood long enough to prove their stability 
under varying climatic and other conditions, has frequently 
shown that where instability has developed it has been 
due to poor construction. However, it is a timely ques- 
tion to consider and one in which the majority of ceme- 
teries are practically interested. Elsewhere in this issue 
are given extracts from comments on the subject of 
maintenance by prominent cemetery officials, and Park 
AND Cemetery would be glad to hear from other ceme- 
teries which have, adopted rules relative to the construc- 
tion, care, or maintenance of mausoleums. 
Sig 'Sg 
The Way of the Reformer 
There is a strange contrast between the way in which 
a reform movement will make headway in the city, and 
the headway such reform will not make in the country. 
Where one might reasonably expect an improvement idea 
to take hold at once and be pushed with vigor, as in the 
country, there it is that missionary effort will be the most 
needed. Even example, which according to the old 
proverb, is better than precept, fails to make its record in 
the average country community. And this condition may 
be expected to continue until the country school exercises 
a higher and broader influence than it yet does. Signs of 
improvement, however, are not wanting, and persistent 
effort in a good cause is bound to win in the end. 
Vjg Ng 
Congressional Free Seed 
It is quite natural that the great majority of seedsmen 
should warmly resent the annual distribution of free seeds, 
and should charge it as being a restraint of trade by the 
U. S. Government itself. The appropriation of $50,000 for 
the purpose in 1864 has become $358,000 in 1909, and from 
15,000,000 packets in 1900 the distribution has grown to 
some 60,000,000 in 1909. It is quite a farcical scheme on 
the part of Congress, inasmuch as that whereas it is prob- 
able that the original idea was to help the agriculturist, 
through his , representative at Washington, by supplying 
him for experimental purposes with some new or rare 
varieties of seeds, it has now degenerated into a simple 
“give away” of a few packages of common vegetable seeds 
to the favored constituents of the congressman e.xercising 
himself in their distribution. 
