PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
Vol. XVI. Chicago, February, 1906. No. 12 
City Condemnation of Property 
The project of the Parkway in Philadelphia has 
drawn attention to the inconveniences attending the 
acquisition of property for civic improvement, and has 
led to a movement to invoke state legislation to in- 
crease the power of the city to condemn property in 
excess of the actual needs, and to resell the excess sub- 
ject to restrictions regarding the style of buildings to 
be erected contiguous to a parkway, or other civic 
betterment. The Inquirer says in support of the prop- 
osition ; “Let the Art Commission, while draft- 
ing legislation to make itself a responsible body, 
set its lawyers at work on a supplementary bill grant- 
ing the city the right to do a real estate business under 
proper restrictions— not a general business, but in 
cases where great public benefit will result.” Such a 
bill must however be very carefully prepared to pre- 
vent all possibility of abuse, otherwise the suggestion 
is a broad and useful one, and would tend to prove 
the city the benefit of increased revenue and emolu- 
ments from property contiguous to civic improvements 
instead of as at present, filling the coffers of private 
owners. 
The Wet Mountain Valley Reserve 
The Nebraska Park and Forest Association has 
passed resolutions asking Congress to appropriate 
$500,000 to create a mountain park out of the Wet 
Mountain Valley Reserve, a tract of country already 
set aside by the government. It is described as 
abounding in gorgeous scenery and is abundantly 
wooded, a wide range of mountain flora being found 
over its area. The entrance, by way of the Beulah 
valley, is but 28 miles from Pueblo, Colorado, and 
while there is no direct railroad communication, it is 
easily accessible to the contiguous prairie states. Con- 
gress has done very little in the way of appropriations 
for the recreation of the people of the great prairies, 
and it seems as though their welfare in the form of 
public parks might be provided for. Our advice is 
to move the people of these states to make a demand 
for this park and Congress will be quick to report. 
Practical Tree Study 
The necessity for truly competent men for the care 
•of trees in city parks and thoroughfares, as well as 
in other situations where skilled tree men are needed, 
is now more clearly recognized. To meet such a need 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst. 
Mass., provides a course which Mr. G. E. Stone, of 
that institution, terms the “Physiology and Pathology 
of Shade Trees,” in which at present seven seniors are 
working. So far as we know this is the only course of 
the kind given, and it is said to be proving a great 
success, the men who have finished with it, specially 
trained as they are to fill intelligently such positions as 
city foresters, or helpers in parks, finding immediate 
occupation. The course of study is to be highly com- 
mended ; we have only begun to appreciate the value 
of trees, and we find the more we know of them the 
more there is to investigate, and the subject grows in 
importance the more we study it. 
Ng Vig 
Legal Decisions on Shade Trees 
The importance of information as to the value of 
shade trees, and all matters of a controversial nature 
relating to parks and cemeteries, as afforded by court 
decisions, is rapidly becoming imperative. It is, how- 
ever, very difficult of access, especially as regards ac- 
tions in the lower courts, there being no authoritative 
compilation of such decisions to be had. Our readers 
would be doing valuable service if they would kindly 
make it a point to send to this journal any newspaper 
clippings, or other information they may come across, 
regarding court decisions affecting trees, cemeteries, 
parks, etc., that are of general interest. 
Ng Ng Ng 
The Free Seed Distributon 
On January 29, the House of Representatives, Wash- 
ington, in committee of the whole, voted to continue 
the free distribution of garden and flower seeds in the 
same old way, scorning the method recommended by 
the Department of Agriculture, and appropriated 
$238,000 dollars for the purpose. It might be an ex- 
cellent plan to reprint that part of the Congressional 
Record containing the discussion of the free seed dis- 
tribution, and scatter it broadcast over the country. 
Intelligent voters would then have an opportunity to 
study the caliber of our representatives as displayed 
by their argumentative ability in such legislation. The 
Free Seed measure, if it ever had a reason for enact- 
ment other than to serve the purposes of the profess- 
ional politician, has long outlived even that purpose, 
and the really vital questions, before Congress in the 
recent past have determined the value of many of our 
Congressional representatives, and are still weighing 
the men in the scales of public appreciation or depre- 
ciation, just according as they show their ability to 
renounce their personal interests and exercise their 
powers for the public good. The free seed distribu- 
tion has been a farce from its inception. 
