193 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ment for the preservation of places of 
natural beauty for the use of the pub- 
lic and the substitution of city squares 
and playgrounds for spots of wretched 
squalor and ugliness. This movement, 
which has secured marked headway in 
the last few years, has produced notable 
results. Extensive park systems in 
some cities are almost complete and in 
others they are now developing. 
The modern progressive and success- 
ful city possesses three assets ; its in- 
dustries, its commerce and its appear- 
ance. “Show me your city and I will 
tell you the kind and quality of your 
citizens," is a rule of universal appli- 
cation, invariabh' correct. The “morale” 
of a people is undoubtedly in exact 
keeping with the outward and manifest 
appearance of the municipal home. 
^Municipal engineers must recognize that 
the modern city must develop not only 
along material lines but also along aes- 
thetic lines : in the orderly and beautiful 
arrangement of its public domain, in 
the acquisition of land for public parks 
and in the planting of trees along its 
avenues and streets. The task of the 
municipal engineer in this city's attain- 
ment of the modern ideal is an im- 
portant one. To be sure, a great many 
cities of the countr}- have employed 
landscape architects to study out com- 
prehensive plans for their improvement. 
Such places, however, are very few in 
comparison with the cities where the 
city engineer has charge of making the 
layouts of new streets as the town 
grows. The lack of foresight in pro- 
viding areas to be used as parks and 
playgrounds is now being felt. The en- 
gineer should point the way and prevent 
the repetition of the mistakes of the 
past. As property grows higher the price 
of desirable sites becomes prohibitively 
high and in time very little land re- 
mains available for park purposes. 
The provision for the street tree has 
been a matter with which the city en- 
gineer has concerned himself very lit- 
tle. If we are to have trees on our 
streets there must he a place where to 
set them. There should be a continu- 
ous parking strip provided, at least- 
four feet in width, along which trees 
may be planted. If the width of the 
street permits it, these strips may be 
made up to- ten feet or more, but a 
width of four feet is about the mini- 
mum space along which trees may be 
planted. Frequently no planting strip 
is provided at all or it is made so nar- 
row that it is impossible to set out 
trees. 
The determining factor of the width 
of the roadway is the volume of vehic- 
ular traffic it carries. On the average 
street the width between fence line to 
fence is divided into two-fifths for 
sidewalks and three-fifths for the road- 
way. So that a fifty-foot street would 
have a thirty-foot roadway and ten- 
foot sidewalks. The sidewalk width 
can be divided into a four-foot planting 
strip, four-foot walk and a two-foot 
sod space between the walk and the lot 
line. In some of the newer sections 
of East Orange the streets were made 
sixty feet wide, and this width was di- 
vided into a roadway of thirty feet 
and sidewalks fifteen feet wide. A six- 
foot planting strip was provided. For 
the average residential street it is an 
ideal layout. 
The roadway should not be made 
wider than is necessary for the volume 
of traffic. In the first place it costs 
more to construct and maintain a wide 
road than a narrow one. The wider the 
road, the greater the volume of dust, 
and the closer the road comes to the 
sidewalk the nearer the dust is to the 
pedestrians. .A. broad strip of turf be- 
tween walk and curb enhances the 
beauty of the street, gives the trees a 
better chance for life, and vigor, and 
gives to the house a better setting. 
These principles governing the deter- 
mination of the widths of sidewalks and 
roadways are so simple that it seems 
strange that in some cities and towns 
the streets are laid out with no pro- 
vision for trees, and the widths of the 
roadway and the sidewalks are not in 
proportion to the use of the highway. 
For example, in Carlisle, Pa., where I 
recently had the opportunity of making 
a survey of the trees, most of the streets 
are sixty feet wide. Although the street 
traffic is not extensive, the roadways are 
made forty feet wide and the sidewalks 
ten feet wide. As the houses are built 
rather close to the sidewalk, as soon as 
the trees become of considerable size 
the branches grow right against the 
buildings. As a result of such condi- 
tions an ordinance was enacted in Car- 
lisle requiring the setting of the trees 
in the gutter. It is evident that such 
a system of tree planting is very bad. 
Trees planted in the gutter become an 
obstruction to the highway, they pre- 
vent the running off of storm water 
and prevent the keeping of the road- 
ways clean. 
In laying out streets in newly devel- 
oping sections of towns, city engineers 
are usually inclined to make the streets 
on the plan of rectangular intersections, 
with no provisions for any open spaces. 
Frequently, however, at little cost small 
spaces may be utilized for park pur- 
poses. The triangular space at the 
place of meeting of two streets in a 
sharp angle may be planted with trees 
and shrubs. Irregularities in the street 
plans, such as street jogs or other fail- 
ures of cross streets to make direct con- 
nections, can frequently be redeemed by 
the introduction of parking areas. 
These and other such opportunities 
should be availed of, for they are ef- 
fective far out of proportion to their 
area in making a town more beautiful. 
Such available spaces may either be 
public property, requiring no expendi- 
ture for land, or the enhancement of 
realty values by their use will be such 
as to make it worth while to give up a 
little land that would otherwise be used 
for building. 
While the use of special areas for 
park purposes is admirable, the syste- 
matic planting and care of trees along 
the streets helps to make the entire city 
parklike. The Savannah Nezvs, in an 
editorial on February 10 , 1909 , said; 
“The increasing interest in shade trees 
in practically all of the cities of the 
country is worthy of more than a pass- 
ing notice. This interest seems to be 
keeping abreast of the sanitary reforms 
that are being inaugurated. While it 
isn’t stated that there is a connection 
between tree planting and hygienic re- 
forms, there is no doubt that shade trees 
contribute to the healthfulness of a 
city. . . . The shade trees have a 
restful effect, because making homes 
more attractive. That which tends to 
give rest and pleasure must also con- 
tribute to healthfulness.” Not only is 
the appreciation of the value of trees 
growing, but also the recognition of the 
fact that to secure the very best results 
the planting and care of street trees 
must be done in a systematic way and 
not left to the caprice of individuals. 
The progress during the past year of 
the idea of the municipal control of 
shade trees has been marked. The 
movement, so successfully inaugurated 
by the legislative enactment of the State 
of New Jersey in 1893 , has spread to 
other cities and states. In New Jersey 
there are now twenty-one cities that 
have Shade Tree Commissions. The 
State of Pennsylvania passed a law in 
1907 , modeled after the New Jersey 
statute, providing for the planting and 
care of shade trees along the highways 
of the municipalities of that state. 
Wilkes-Barre and .A.mbridge have placed 
their street trees under the control of 
commissions, and the idea is spreading 
to other cities. The Harrisburg Patriot 
in an editorial on January 2, 1909 , said: 
“We do not see how any one . . . 
can doubt the wisdom of a speedy ac- 
ceptance of the law of 1907 authorizing 
the placing of all shade trees in charge 
