241 1 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Annual 7'eports or extracts frotn them^ historical sketches^ 
descriptive circularsy photographs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use i?i this department* 
It has been suggested that the various art and civic 
improvement associations of Philadelphia combine with 
the city authorities to improve the vacant space ‘made by 
the intersection of streets in front of the convention hall 
site at Thirty-second street and Lancaster avenue. 
* * * 
By the act of congress approved January 9, 1903, a tract 
of land containing 10,560 acres in South Dakota, twelve 
miles east of Hot Springs, has been set apart as a public 
park, to be known as Wind Cave National Park. The 
park is placed under the exclusive control of the Secre- 
tary of the Interior. 
* * * 
The park commissioners of Greater New York have asked 
the Board of Estimate for $5,500,000 for park work during 
1907. Of this sum the borough of Manhattan wants $2,890,- 
000 ; Brooklyn and Queens, $1,483,000, and the Bronx, $1,794,- 
000. The park areas of the different boroughs are as fol- 
lows : Manhattan, 1,416 acres ; Brooklyn and Queens, 1,663 ; 
Bronx, 3,981, and the borough of Richmond, 60 acres, mak- 
ing a total park area of 7,120 acres. 
♦ 
Decatur, 111., sought to have a park system. To that 
end a measure was drawn up that would include Decatur 
and four or five townships in the park district. At a 
recent special election the vote was 3,219 against adopting 
the plan, and only 601 for it. The cry was raised that the 
plan was only for the automobilists and the wealthier 
classes, and that it only meant increase in taxes, and so 
the country people turned out and with surprising ignor- 
ance killed the measure. 
* * * 
Dr. Henry S. Curtis, supervisor of playgrounds of Wash- 
ington, D. C., who has been inspecting playgrounds in Phila- 
delphia, Chicago, Pittsburg, New York and Boston, says in 
his report to the Washington commissioners that the play- 
grounds of the South Park System of Chicago are the finest 
planned and best managed in the United States. The most 
striking features of these parks he says are the athletic play- 
grounds and field houses, which have been described in these 
columns. 
* * * 
Public spirited citizens and organizations of Milwaukee are 
carrying on a lively agitation for an increase in the park area 
of that city, and sites are being considered for both large and' 
small parks. The following are now the principal parks: 
Lake Park, 124.5 acres; Kosziusko Park, 25 acres; Mitchell 
Park, 29.8 acres; Sherman Park, 24 acres; Riverside Park, 
24 acres; Humboldt, 45 acres; Washington Park, 124.5 acres, 
besides about a dozen ward parks which, with the exception 
of two, have been donated to the city. 
The application of the Interstate Palisades Park Com- 
mission, of New York, for right to begin condemnation 
proceedings to evict the quarrymen who are destroying 
Hook mountain is to be opposed by the quarrymen on the 
ground that the bill passed last spring in the legislature 
permitting the Park Commission to take Hook mountain 
is unconstitutional. The quarrymen it was said, have 
signified their intention of holding out for a price declared 
to be exorbitant. They have named $4,000,000 as the 
value of their properties, although their holdings are said 
to be assessed at a trifle more than $200,000. The con- 
stitutionality of the law came up for discussion when the 
quarrymen made their fight in the legislature last spring, 
and according to legal authorities that have been retained 
by the Palisades Park Commission the point has already 
been disposed of. 
* ^ 
From the Annual Reports 
At the annual meeting of the West Park Board, of Chi- 
cago, President Eckhart announced that the $1,000,000 
issue for small parks and half of the $2,000,000 for improve- 
ment and maintenance had been disposed of. He urgently 
recommended a new and modern bridge and approaches at 
Washington street and made commendatory mention of the 
efforts of the park police to check automobile speeding. The 
salary of Superintendent Jens Jensen was raised from $4,500 
to $5,500 a year. 
The annual report of Wilbur H. Dunn, superintendent of 
parks, of Kansas City, Mo., shows that there are sixteen 
parks in that city, varying in size from less than one acre 
to 1,354 acres — the area of Swope Park. The total park area 
is 2,055 acres. The parks are connected with a boulevard 
system, having a length of 53 miles, including the roadways 
within the parks. The cost of this system to date has been 
$7,005,095. A proposition is now before the people for a bond 
issue of $400,000 for park purposes. 
Superintendent Theodore Wirth, of the Minneapolis parks, 
has presented an elaborate report concerning his first year’s 
work there and recommendations for the future development 
of the system. Mr. Wirth says that the city has a founda- 
tion for a park system equal to that of any city and superior 
to most. With few exceptions the system is complete and 
needs only to be developed. He makes detailed recommen- 
dations for improvements in the different tracts and presents 
ten plans for this work and fifteen photographs. Lake Har- 
riet, he says, should be enlarged and the drives about the 
lake widened and made safer. Rustic concrete bridges should 
replace the wooden ones in Minnehaha Park and the exist- 
ing walks and drives should be widened and rebuilt. He 
recommends obtaining certain tracts of land now in private 
hands along Minnehaha parkway and suggests that the 
course of the creek be changed in certain places to obviate 
the annual loss by floods. The total cost of maintaining the 
parks and parkways the past year was $59,118. The total 
pay roll of the department was $77,687. 
The fourteenth annual report of the park commissioners 
of Cambridge, Mass., recommends the establishing of a large 
playground and the leasing of the boathouse sites on the 
river to reputable boat clubs. The report of the general 
superintendent gives a detailed statement of the work done 
on each section of the system, an inventory of the property 
on hand and a statement of the year’s expenditures. The 
park board employed a large number of men in their effort 
to exterminate the gypsy and brown-tail moth, and expended 
an appropriation of $14,000 in this work. They used an 
Olds Gas Spraying Machine,' with a 300-gallon tank, which is 
operated by six men. The work is reported as successful, an 
average of sixty trees being sprayed in eight hours. 
