459 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
MAKING SYMMETRICAL STREET PLANTING SYSTEM 
The Parking Commission of New 
Orleans was organized in 1909 with 
extensive powers and privileges to 
reform, correct, and unify an anticiuat- 
ed. aimless, but luxuriant system of 
street planting. The commission has 
recently made its first annual report, 
in which the duties of that body are 
defined, and the principles and prac- 
tice of municipal arboriculture as ap- 
plied to the New Orleans situation 
briefly reviewed. 
At the outset the commission set 
itself the herculean task of making a 
complete art adjustment correcting 
original errors in conception and 
growth, with suppression of some per- 
nicious habits acquired through tra- 
ditional usage. It was evident that 
this could be accomplished only in 
obedience to strictly scientific princi- 
ples of treatment, perfectly planned 
and faithfully but gradually applied. 
Edward Baker, secretary and su- 
perintendent for the board, outlines 
the principles on which the work is to 
be accomplished as follows; 
The underlying’ idea of landscape archi- 
tecture is to bring into the arrangement of 
grounds, whether they be large or small, 
unity of design and harmony of composition. 
We are taught to preserve the natural and 
to restore it where lost, to avoid the con- 
ventional, and to preserve the perspective. 
An unimpeded view with plantings on either 
side, with an arrangement of foliage that 
does not obstruct the vista, is the guiding 
and dominant idea. 
Applying these principles to our streets, 
and especially to those having a neutral 
space in the center, will produce the effect 
of greater width and length; while,* if the 
oentral space is planted so that the ultimate 
growth shall attain a considerable size, the 
view is impeded, with injurious curtailment 
in len,gth and breadth, defeating the vei’y 
purpose of beautification. He must foresee 
its growth at such future periods as ten 
years, twenty years, and at maturity, and 
the questions of selection, spacing and 
growth should receive the fullest consid- 
eration. 
One other phase of the question of per- 
manency forced upon us by experience, is 
that we should plant the exact number of 
trees or other plants in the exact location 
called for in a well considered plan. This 
number should not be increased in an at- 
tempt to achieve quick results. When such 
additional and excessive planting is done, 
it is invariably with the understanding that 
certain of the number shall be cut out at 
some future time, but that future time never 
arrives, or at any rate, is never determined. 
We all know the popular opposition to cut- 
ting down any tree on public grounds. Even 
where the strongest reasons for destroying a 
tree exist, it demands a man of exception- 
ally strong character to pass the death sen- 
tence. Few instances exist -where the origi- 
nal intention to thin out has been carried 
into effect, but on the contrary, the usual 
result is an overcrowded planting which 
remains to obstruct and destroy effect. 
A question of special importance is the 
size the tree will attain at maturity, its 
height and spread of branches, whether the 
selection is to he a forest tree or one of 
medium grow'th, designated in your pros- 
pectus as trees of the first and second class. 
This having been determined. It is of but 
little consequence which tree of its class is 
chosen, if it be in proportion to its environ- 
ment. Heretofore the question of a suitable 
tree has led to much controversy an.d seldom 
to an agreement. In some instances the 
planting has been delayed or abandoned from 
this cause alone. 
In the case of streets and neutral grounds 
which contain former systematic plantings 
established before the days of car lines, and 
now of considerable growth, the obvious duty 
is to preserve the existing trees wherever 
they are healthy and suitably to fill the 
vacant spaces. These exceptional instances 
do not admit of a revised plan of treatment; 
but must be accepted as we find them. 
Concerning palms, their period of attrac- 
tiveness is much less than the average suit- 
able tree; this, together with their question- 
able hardiness, places them in the strictly 
ornamental class. They are most appropri- 
ate for the adornment of squares and public 
places, but their use in streets, avenues or 
neutral grounds should be governed by art 
effect and the space that can be given them. 
Their dense spread of leaves may become 
obstructive to view, and therefore, an ele- 
ment of danger if closely planted. 
Where sufficient space exists a judicious 
planting of palms between the permanent 
trees, and possibly in other locations, gives 
to the street, in the shortest period, an em- 
bellishment that is tropical and highly at- 
tractive. 
Flowering and ornamental shrubs, es- 
pecially evergreens, may be used with splen- 
did effect in neutral grounds and between 
trees of slow growth. They form one of the 
essentials in a proper treatment of public 
squares and places. 
To be effective, the commissio.n has 
been compelled to establish rules of 
procedure, contained in a pamphlet 
that now serves well as a constitution 
for guidance and restraint. They call 
attention to the fact that all over the 
city, trees, shrubs and palms are plant- 
ed too closely; there is a promiscuous 
crowding, ruinous to artistic design, 
obstructive to view, a blind to drivers, 
a menace to pedestrians and a cover 
for criminals. 
With the exception of some speci- 
mens of unique devotion to tropical 
effect, most pleasing to strangers, the 
Parking Commission is distinctly op- 
posed to palms or other tall growth on 
neutral grounds, such as would blanket 
and destroy the distant perspective 
or vista, with its effect of vast roon»- 
iness, such as has given to certain cit- 
ies the reputation of “magnificent 
distances.” A grand vista is the chief 
asset of an avenue. 
The view of a blanketed vista in 
Louisiana avenue shows how it may 
be ruined by improper planting. In St. 
Charles avenue there is shown a mag- 
nificent bilaterial treatment, with in- 
tervening vista completely destroyed 
by a forest growth of inferior red 
oaks, of a kind predominant in the 
scrub of the wilderness of Virginia. 
They are closely planted, inartistic, 
gaunt, dreary, of no historic claim and 
an original mistake in location near a 
double line of car tracks. It means 
a sacrifice of the brilliant and easily 
attained possibilities of a magnificent 
mall, unique and beautiful, to a worth- 
less center growth of trees out of 
place. 
Another insistent rule is that, in the 
arrangement of planting, streets must 
be balanced symmetrically, one tree 
opposite another of its kind, on either 
side. A street out of balance is far 
more unsightly than a boat out of 
trim. Lopsided and deformed, no 
amount of labor can give it grace or 
dignity, except by correction. The 
view in Soniat street shows a well- 
balanced planting that is in striking 
contrast to the lop-sided effect seen 
in State street, where China trees are 
opposite Magnolia grandiflora, with 
palmettoes densely massed on one 
side, hiding the sidewalk and making 
a dark lane at night. 
Obedience to a natural law of se- 
lection of the fittest, has established 
as tests of requirements; Longevity, 
beauty and symmetry, foliage, color; 
graceful, rather than too formal; ma- 
jestic habit, where grandeur of effect 
can be obtained; the treatment of ave- 
nues majestically on either side, with 
neutral grounds in small, rich ever- 
greens interblended with trees of sim- 
ilar low growth, profusely flowering 
in positive and striking colors, devel- 
oping the vista magnificently. Judi- 
ciously subordinated in the scheme, 
palms have a distinctive value in ac- 
centuating artistically the semi-tropi- 
