PARK AND CEMETERY. 
112 
and every building and unnecessary 
construction of every kind reduces the 
value of his .creation, as do trees and 
shrubs, and other flowering plants 
which are out of harmony with their 
surroundings. Such things injure the 
artistic value of a park; they unneces- 
sarily increase its cost and make the 
burden of annual maintenance more 
difficult to bear. Simplicity of design 
often means a saving of unnecessary 
expenditure, but it should not mean 
cheapness of construction. The most 
expensive parks to maintain are those 
which have been the most cheaply 
constructed, for cheap construction 
means expensive maintenance. Roads 
and walks should not be made where 
they are not needed, and they should 
not be made unnecessarily wide to 
accommodate possible crowds of an- 
other century, but those that are built 
should be constructed in the most 
thorough and durable manner possible 
in order to reduce the cost of future 
care. When lawns are made the work 
should be done thoroughly; and no 
tree or shrub should be planted in any 
manner but the best and in the most 
carefully prepared soil. Only as little 
work as possible should be done, but 
GROWTH OF 
A vital consideration in the welfare 
of every community is that of the 
conditions under which its children 
play, and I mean every community, 
for it is not the congested district 
alone, but the country village as well, 
that needs to see to it that the recre- 
action of the boys and girls is of the 
righ sort. I know of conditions that 
exist in a little country town in New 
York state where I lived as a boy 
that would cause the social workers 
in the vilest sections of our big cit- 
ies to sit up and take notice. 
Just as truly as it is for the best 
interests of the State to provide every 
child a seat in school, so truly is it 
to the state’s interest to see that ev- 
ery girl is given an opportunity to 
play wholesomely and well. That 
does not mean that its duty is dis- 
charged when it sets aside a plot of 
ground and labels it a “playground.” 
There must be persons in charge 
who understand boys and girls, and 
who, as Mr. DeGroot of Chicago 
puts it, “are so manly and so woman- 
ly that their manliness and womanli- 
ness shall rub off onto the boys and 
girls and help them to become of the 
same sort.” 
Emerson said: “Send your boys 
to school and they get their educa- 
tion on the way.” It is strange that 
il should be done in the most perma- 
nent manner. The best investments a 
park-maker can make is in good soil, 
for without an abundance of good 
soil it is impossible to produce large 
and permanent trees and good grass, 
and the chief value of any park is in 
its trees and grass; and if the money 
which has been spent in disfiguring 
American parks with unnecessary 
buildings and miscellaneous architec- 
tural terrors had been used in buying 
loam, they would not now present the 
dreary ranks of starved and stunted 
trees and the great patches of wornout 
turf which too often disfigure them. 
Only the hardiest trees and shrubs 
should be used in park planting,, for 
there is no economy in planting trees 
or shrubs which are liable to be killed 
any year, partially if not entirely by 
frost or heat or drought, which an- 
nu.alh' ruin many exotic garden plants, 
nor is it wise to use in public parks 
plants which, unless carefully watched, 
are disfigured every year by insects. 
It costs a great deal of money to cut 
out dead and dying branches from 
trees and .shrubs, to remove dead 
trees and fight insects, but work of 
this sort must be done unless the 
selection of plants used to decorate 
our .parks is made with the greatest 
care. Fortunately, the trees and shrubs 
w'hich need the least attention, and 
are therefore the most economical 
ones to plant, are the best from an 
artistic point of view; and to transfer 
to canvas, no great variety of material 
is needed. The most restful park 
scenery, and, therefore, the best, can 
be obtained by using judiciously a 
small number of varieties of the hard- 
iest trees and shrubs, and the wise 
park maker will confine his choice to 
those species which Nature helps him 
to select, and which, therefore, stand 
the best chance of permanent success. 
No park can be beautiful unless the 
trees which adorn it are healthy, and 
no tree is healthy which suffers from 
uncongenial climatic conditions and 
insufficient nourishment. Even if they 
are not inharmonious in a natural 
combination, the trees and shrubs 
which need constant pruning to keep 
them from looking shabby are too ex- 
pensive for park use and should, there- 
fore, be rejected when broad natural 
effects in construction and econorny of 
maintenance are aimed for by the 
park maker.” 
THE 
From address by Lee F, Hanmer, Secretary Play- 
ground Association oj America. 
it has taken us so long to discover 
a truth that, by one man, at least, was 
known and appreciated years ago. 
The present widespread interest in 
play and games is not to be classed 
with fads and fancies, but it is a log- 
ical awakening to truths long known 
but W'hich we have been too busy and 
too much engrossed to remember or 
to appreciate. 
Boards of Education and Boards of 
Flealth are coming to realize that 
modern conditions make it worth 
while to look after the physical wel- 
fare of the boys and girls. This re- 
alization has had much to do with 
the development of playgrounds. 
There is another side to this play- 
ground question, however, that is 
worthy of careful consideration, and 
that is their social values — their in- 
fluence on human relations. Pres- 
ent day students of Sociology tell 
us that poverty and crime are not 
so much due to inherent defects in 
individuals as to their mal-adjustment 
in society. 
In 1907 playgrounds were in op- 
eration in ninety cities. During the 
summer of 1908 one hundred and sev- 
enty-seven cities have conducted 
playgrounds, and one hundred and 
IDEA 
eighteen others are known to be 
considering their establishment. This 
means that in a ‘single year the num- 
ber of cities having playgrounds has 
been nearly doubled, and that one out 
of every seven of the remaining cit- 
ies that have a population of 10,000 
or over are planning to make a be- 
ginning. 
A careful and detailed study has 
been made during the past year of 
the influence of playgrounds and rec- 
reation centers of Chicago on juven- 
ile delinquency. The investigation 
was carried on under the direction 
of Allen T. Burns, Dean of the Chi- 
cago School of Civics and Philan- 
thropy. His conclusions, which 
seem to be well founded, are that “a 
small park neighborhood recreation 
center, such as those used on the 
South side in Chicago, can be ex- 
pected to-be coincident -with a twen- 
ty-eight and one-half per cent de- 
crease of delinquency with a radius 
of one-half mile, conditions of the 
neighborhood in other respects re- 
maining the same.” The cost of such 
a playground in Chicago has been 
$1.76 for establishment, and twenty 
three cents a year for maintenance 
for the property holder of $10,000- 
{Continued on page 12S) 
PLAYGROUND 
