PARK AND CEMETERY . 
340 
was unanimously re-elected secretary- 
treasurer. 
The president called upon Mr. C. 
M. Loring, of Minneapolis, for some 
remarks. He said that his work in 
and for parks had been his salvation. 
He criticised the officials of Harris- 
burg severely for their parsimony in 
dealing with the parks and their man- 
agers. He said that a tax of at least 
one mill should be made upon the 
assessed value of all city property 
for park purposes. 
The Question Bo.x was opened and 
the first question was, “To what ex- 
tent should the public be kept off 
lawn areas in parks?” ' 
Mr. John Algots, of Chicago, said 
that it was very necessary that the 
public should be excluded at times 
from lawns, especially in the spring 
when the grass was beginning to 
start. Mr. Manning said that he had 
found it necessary to fence in the 
small plots of grass in the squares of 
Baltimore in order to have any grass 
at all. Mr. Wm. J. Zartman said that 
the common use of lawns was prob- 
ably the best system. He said the 
condition of the lawns due to the 
weather had much to do with the re- 
sult of the common use of the grass. 
Mr. Shea said that it was hard to 
lay down any iron-clad rule, as in 
some places the only way to have 
any grass at all was to keep the pub- 
lic off at certain seasons. 
The next question was “Are sta- 
tionary or movable benches most 
satisfactory for park purposes?” Mr. 
Shea said he had found it necessary 
to make the benches stationary. He 
used benches with concrete ends and 
board seats. 
Mr. Zartman said he found that 
people followed the shade and would 
move the benches or break them. 
He thought it depended upon the lo- 
cal conditions. 
Mr. Adams said he used movable 
benches. 
Mr. Mulford said the problem was 
very pertinent as affecting the park- 
way along the river bank. He was us- 
ing both stationary and movable 
benches. 
Mr. Keith says you can't beat the sta- 
tionary bench. 
Mr. Algots said that movable seats 
were used almost exclusively in Chi- 
cago. They were as a rule left out all 
winter. 
Owing to the lateness of the hour the 
discussion of the other questions was 
postponed. 
A representative of the Robeson Pro- 
cess Co. called attention to the merits 
of a new material called “Glutrin” for 
use on the surface of roads. It is a 
by-product from the paper mills and is 
said to be excellent for binding the sur- 
face of both stone and dirt roads. 
After the adjournment of the busi- 
ness meeting the athletic grounds and 
filter plants were visited and examined 
with much interest. It is claimed that 
Harrisburg has one of the most com- 
plete filter plants in the world. 
The program announced “A View of 
the Sunset from the River Front,” but 
instead of a sunset view there was a 
tremendous thunder storm and down- 
pour of rain at about 7 o’clock. The 
evening session was held in the lecture 
room at Mt. Pleasant Press. 
Mr. Peter Bisset of the Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., de- 
livered an illustrated address on “The 
Introduction of Ornamental Plants of 
the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 
Introduction, United States Department 
of Agriculture,” in which he told 
of some of the notable introductions 
maVe by the department and the work 
it was doing to introduce trees, shrubs, 
vines, fruit, cereals, etc., from all parts 
of the world suited to the varying cli- 
matic conditions of the United States. 
A talk on public playgrounds or ath- 
letic grounds was given by Geo. W. 
Ehler- of the Public Athletic League, 
Baltimore, Md. It was illustrated by 
fine pictures of the athletic grounds of 
Baltimore, showing many of the new 
games for boys in progress. 
He said he did not like the idea that 
athletics was a means of dissipating sur- 
plus energy, a means of keeping boys- 
out of mischief. Athletics have a pow-- 
erful moral influence in the proper train- 
ing of the mind and body. 
There is at this time a tremendo’U'S 
interest in athletic events of every sort 
and a great change in public opinion on 
the subject. It is better to bring up 
the child properly than to take chances 
of converting him later in life. 
Thomas M. Baedenkofif, superintend- 
ent and secretary of the Public Bath' 
Commission, Baltimore, gave an illus- 
trated talk on public baths, showing 
pictures of the old Roman baths and 
the modern bathing house, wading and 
swimming pools. 
Before the final adjournment a vote 
of thanks was extended to the speak- 
ers who had contributed to the suc- 
cess of the convention. 
Thursday, Aug. 11, a large number 
of the members of the association took 
the train at 7 ;20 a. m. for Gettysburg, 
where a tour of the battlefield was made. 
Those present were Chas. G. Carpenter, 
Milwaukee, Wis. ; C. A. Bossen, Minneapolls,- 
Minn.; M. A. Stuart, wife and daughter, Ot- 
tawa, Can.; Chas. Haible and son, Newburgh, 
N. Y. : Mr. and Mrs. Wm. S. Manning, Bal- 
timore, Md.; James B. Shea, Boston, Mass.; 
Wm. J. Zartman, Brooklyn, N. T. ; E. C. 
Ross, Newburgh, N. T.; Frank Baker, Natl. 
Zoo Park, Washington, D. C, ; P. M. Wood, 
Branden Park, Williamsport, Pa. ; Wm. R. 
Adams, Omaha, Neb.; John Henderson, 
Montreal, Can.; W. M. Shepardson, Middle- 
bury. Conn,; Geo. M. Burke, Pitt.sburgh, Pa.; 
Fredk. C. Green. Providence, R. I.; Wm. W. 
Howell. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Wm. Stopher, 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; A. X. Amrhyn, New 
Haven. Conn. : C. H. Heckler, Roslyn, N. Y. ; 
R. B. Wainright, New Britain, Conn.; Eugene 
Goebel, Grand Rapids, Mich. ; Gustav Ashert, 
West Bend, Wis.; John Algots, Chicago; 
Geo. F. A. Reinisch, Topeka, Kan.; Mr. and 
Mrs. Roland T. Slattlewait, Chas. Slattle- 
walt, Alfred F. Slattlewait, West Grove, Pa. ; 
P. T. Barnes, Harrisburg, Pa.; W. E. Ham- 
ilton, Harrisburg, Pa.; Chas. M. Loring, 
Minneapolis, Minn.; W. H. Dunn, Kansas 
City, Mo.; Frank Brubeck, Terre Haute, 
Ind.;,W. I. Wallenbeck, Ithaca, N. Y. ; Chas. 
E. Keith, Bridgeport, Conn. ; J. H. Griffith, 
Park .vxd Cembtery, Chicago and New 
York. 
THE LATEST CONCLUSIONS ABOUT ROAD SURFACES 
By W. H. DUNN, Superintendent of Parks, Kansas City Mo. 
1 shall assume, on this subject, the 
greater interest of the American Associa- 
tion of Park Superintendents to be. “The 
Latest Conclusions About Road Surfaces 
for Boulevards and Park Drives,” or road 
surfaces designed principally for pleasure 
vehicle traffic, and shall attempt to discuss 
the subject from a practical point of view 
only, presenting the results of actual ex- 
perience and avoiding entirely all theoreti- 
cal problems. With this purpose in view 
I will confine my discussion to the prac- 
tical results obtained from road surface 
treatment by the Board of Park Commis- 
sioners in Kansas City, Mo. 
In Kansas City there is an abundance 
of native limestone in ledges throughout 
the city of excellent quality for macadam 
roads, and at the beginning of our park 
and boulevard improvement the native 
limestone macadam was adopted as the 
base Or foundation for all of our driveway 
construction. Upon this base was laid four 
inches of crushed granite or Arkansas trap 
rock for a wearing surface. While the 
granite wearing surface proved to he an 
excellent road metal, and the original 
pavements laid with that material are in 
fine condition after over ten years of serv- 
ice, on account of the inconvenience of 
bringing the granite from quite a distance, 
that material was abandoned in favor of 
the native limestone for the entire con- 
struction of the pavement, so that practi- 
cally our Avhole sj^stem of driveways is con- 
structed entirely of native limestone. 
These roads were constructed in the most 
thorough manner from the sub-grade to the 
finished surface. In the main our boule- 
vards are 40 feet in width between curbs 
and crowned in the center 12 inches above 
the gutters, with a uniform depth of 12 
inches of rock. Our park drives being sub- 
jected to considerably less general traffic, 
are constructed with equal care, but gen- 
