PARK AND CEMETERY 
320 
oiling results have been fairly satisfactory; 
the better results have been obtained by the 
use of 50 per cent asphaltum oils. The sav- 
ing in the stone will almost compensate 
for the extra expense of the asphaltum oil. 
In some cases I had the road sprinkled in 
June, and when I left a week ago the sur- 
face was practically in the same condition 
as four months ago, with a great deal of 
travel over it. The very light oils do not 
give the same satisfaction on account of 
their rapid evaporation and the necessity 
for repetition, and that requires a great in- 
crease in the maintenance department and 
a diversion of labor from more necessary 
repairs. 
In the repair of the road we have had 
some very bad results. It seems to depend 
entirely on the amount of travel. We have 
used a standard oil of about 95 per cent 
a.^phalt. The same experience was had as 
"Mr. Riemer had. We broke up the road, 
and then placed the clean stone on top of 
that and rolled it carefully, and then put 
•the oil in at approximately 1.3 gallons per 
square yard, and then put dust on and rolled 
it down. When the travel is fairly light 
and the manipulation consistently correct, 
good results are obtained; but where the 
travel is heavy we have .a creeping that is 
simply woeful. One piece of road in three 
weeks rolled up in waves some six inches 
in height. The difficulty arose as to how 
to get them down, and so far we haven’t 
found a very satisfactory way. So there 
seems to be a dividing line for traffic ca- 
pacity in this direction. 
In the new work I have had better results: 
Taking a new road, with clean stone, and 
rolling it carefully and putting 1.3 gallons 
of oil on the surface, and running about 
2.000 feet per day of sprinkling, letting that 
cool off and soak in over night, and placing 
a layer of dust on it in the morning on top 
of the oil, and then rolling that, we find we 
get a very good compact surface with half 
a day's rolling. Thus far the results have 
been satisfactory with that method. 
I think this shows that the procedure to 
date may be called tentative. You must first 
decide on the material that is best for all 
purposes and all times, and then secure 
careful and intelligent manipulation. I can 
appreciate that somewhat from the fact 
that perhaps in my experience the manipu- 
lation was as large a factor in successful 
construction as the material, and I think 
it would also be as important a factor un- 
der the new regime. As a matter of fact, 
in our system of roads, fifty or sixty miles, 
we have decided to abandon the old ma- 
cadam road, but the question is going to 
be pertinent and can onl 5 ^ be arrived at 
from an experience of four or five j^ears, 
whether the best results can be obtained by 
using a bituminous binder, or with the 
construction of macadam road under the 
old regime, and have a system of oil sprink- 
ling for the dusty period. You must re- 
member that the complaint of the dust ex- 
ists -in our section for about four months 
only, and to spend this extra amount of 
money for the four months is all that is 
necessary. In addition to the other troubles 
we have with these ver 5 ’’ heavy oils in treat- 
ing old macadam, is the mushy condition 
in wet weather. It is necessary to have a 
clean surface, and of course that increases 
the expense in surface sprinkling. If you 
take the dust as it lies on the road and 
sprinkle it with oil, it is too heavy to blow 
away, it is too greasy to wash away, and 
the trouble is that the dust stays there and 
when it rains it is nothing but a mud hole. 
Any information any one has here this 
morning on this subject will be a factor in 
deciding what our future procedure will be. 
As far as I am concerned, I am to date 
open for instruction and learning in every 
particular. 
Mr. Tipper: With regard to whether the 
oiling of the road, or the incorporation of a 
binder in the surface of the road is going 
to prove more economical, I think that 
question depends largely on the kind of 
material. There are a great variety of oils 
used, and these oils that are on the market 
for the purpose represent many different 
kinds of oils; whether they are of asphaltic 
nature or not is not always clear, or whether 
by evaporation they leave the proper resi- 
duum of asphalt on the road, is not always 
clear. And the question as to whether we 
are going to have economical work done by 
the use of that material will depend on 
whether that will leave any kind of a binder 
on the road at all. One of the important 
things to work out is the essential qualities 
in a binder, and how you are going to prove 
that they are present. At the present time, 
if you take five or six specifications for 
binders, they are almost all contradictory. 
One purchaser has one idea, and another 
another. I have examined all kinds of 
specifications this year, and I cannot get 
them down to a common basis at all. Un- 
der those conditions you will have to work 
on material before you can find out whether 
the construction is good, because you have 
no basis to work on, no common ground. 
Mr. Mct’ullough: I saw a very interesting- 
little experiment performed on a macadam 
boulevard in Chicago a few weeks ago, 
where they were going to oil it. A physician 
owned one of those vacuum carpet cleaners, 
and he took the dust out of the macadam 
for a space of fifty feet wide — that was his 
entire frontage — and for about ten feet out 
from the curb. The results were very satis- 
factory. I wondered if some time the 
taking out of the dust that interferes with 
the binding oil could not be done. That re- 
sult was extremely good, because every- 
where else the surplus oil went to the gut- 
ters. and there it went down into the ma- 
cadam. 
Mr. Marshall: May I ask what season of 
the year the oil was applied, and whether 
there were any peculiar atmospherical con- 
ditions ? 
Mr. Riemer: The application in 1907 was 
put on in June and lasted until March of 
the succeeding year, and it was subjected 
to heat and frost for that length of time, 
and it was not until March that it showed 
any appreciable signs of wear at all. In 
fact, we have on that road some of the first 
applications put on in 1907, and that oil did 
not disintegrate at all, or become muddy, at 
any time of the year. Even during the win- 
ter period that road was continually hard 
The annual meeting of the Ameri- 
can Association of Park Superinten- 
dents will be held at Harrisburg, Pa., 
August 9, 10 and 11, and Secretary 
Mulford has arranged an exception- 
ally interesting program for the visit 
to his home town. 
Harrisburg has much to show in 
the way of park development, and 
civic improvement that is typical of 
what the small city can accomplish 
by intelligent and well-directed work, 
and the park superintendent can do 
some- valuable field study here. 
Following is a provisional outline 
of the program, which is of course 
subject to change in certain details: 
Tuesday, August 9th. 
8:30 A. M. Meeting of Executive 
Committee. 
9:30 to 13:30. Annual business meet- 
ing, followed by the reading of papers. 
3 P. M. Visit to the State Capitol. 
4 P. M. Inspection of River Front 
and dry, and that is the reason I think we 
must come to some standard of oil to use. 
In the bids which we received for the fur- 
nishing of .oil, we called upon the bidders 
to furnish also specifications and analyses 
of their oils. 
Mr. Tipper: Regarding the surface appli- 
cation of light oils, there are two or three 
examples in New York City that are inter- 
esting. On Riverside Drive and on Central 
Park Drive they applied oil this year right 
along. The si^eed of automobiles on those 
drives is from eight to fourteen miles an 
hour. Riverside Drive was resurfaced in 
June of this year*. They had a great g'ang 
of men and went all over it. I have watched 
that carefully this summer, and inside of 
three months there were cuts in that drive 
from an inch to an inch and a half deep, 
although it was regularly oiled. There is 
still loose material on the sides, and it is 
still rutting up in the center of the road. 
The President: We have a party furnish- 
ing oil on construction work under the rules 
of the state which provide that every car of 
oil has to be shipped to Trenton to be 
analyzed, and so far the oils delivered for 
construction work have complied with the 
standard. There was half a car left over 
from repair work, and the suggestion was 
made that it might be used in finishing up 
some of the construction work. A sample 
of that was sent to Trenton, and it was re- 
jected. So it does boil itself down to the 
intricate problem of the analyses of these 
oils, to know exactly what we are getting, 
and then the manipulation and weather and 
climate, and everything else must be consid- 
ered as parts of the equation. 
Mr. White: I think that question of 
analysis and manner of making the analysis 
is one of the difficult questions to settle in 
different parts of the country. As I under- 
stand it — I am no chemist — the analyses of 
bitumens are the most complicated analyses 
that have to do with any part of the work, 
and the manner of making the analyses has 
very much to do with the result. In other 
words, the personal equation is very , great 
in making them, as the analyses of the 
same material made by different labora- 
tories of good reputation will vary so much 
that the question comes back to the matter 
of getting a standard method of making the 
analyses. 
Parks, Island Playgrounds, Park Nur- 
sery and City Filtration Plant. 
7 P. ]\I. Sunset on the river. 
8 P. M. Papers and discussions. 
Wednesday, August 10th. 
8:30 A. M. Tour of parks. Mulberry 
Street Viaduct, Twelfth Street Play- 
grounds, Wildwood Park and Lake 
Rockville Bridge, The River Drive, 
Pumping Station, Front Street Parks, 
Cameron Parkway, State Street and 
Reservoir Park. 
1 P. AI. Lunch in Reservoir Park. 
3:30 to 5 P. M. Business meeting. 
7:1.5 P. ]M. Take train for Gettys- 
burg. 
Thursday, August 11th. 
Tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield 
with competent guides. 
W. S. Manning, Supt. of Parks, 
Baltimore, is President of the Asso- 
ciation, and F. L. Mulford, Supt. of 
Parks, Harrisburg, Pa., Secretary- 
Treasurer. 
PARK SUPERINTENDENTS TO MEET 
