PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXI Chicago, April, 1911 No. 2 
The Appalachian and White Mountain Forest Reserves 
The passage of the bill providing for the Appalachian and 
White Mountain Forest Reserves, which was consummated at 
the last session of Congress after years of effort, has started 
the department of Agriculture into activity in the direction of 
acquiring the necessary land, and to this end it has issued a 
circular intended to give information to the public as to 
where and what kind of lands are wanted. Under the law, 
the Secretary of Agriculture is to examine, locate and recom- 
mend to the commissoin for purchase such lands as in his 
judgment may be necessary for regulating the flow of navi- 
gable streams, and owners of land, the purchase of which will 
be considered by the government, are expected, on the basis 
of the information contained in the circular, to make known 
to the Forest Service their desire to sell. Lands may be 
bought only in the States whose legislatures have consented 
to the acquisition of land by the United States which have al- 
ready taken the necessary action; these are Maine, New 
Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia ; and the first 
lands to be examined for purchase will be in the Appalachian 
and White Mountains, which because of their altitude, steep- 
ness and lack of protection are in a class by themselves. 
The circular with full information may be obtained by apply- 
ing to the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington. These will be among the most interesting of the U. 
S. forest reserves. 
>S 
The Planting Season 
In our northern latitudes March winds and April showers, 
however variable they may be in intensity or continuance, 
soon declare that it is time for gardening operations, and the 
evident pleasure with which most people anticipate this time 
keenly displays the old time love of this domain of nature 
which has possessed the soul of man from the beginnnig. It 
is a very busy time in our cemeteries and parks, and each 
succeeding year presents so many new problems to solve 
that the work, hard though it may be in most cases, promises 
such happy rewards that work becomes indeed a pleasure. 
The comparative national prosperity of last year leads to the 
conclusion that a vast amount of improvement will be carried 
out in all outdoor public places the coming season, a propo- 
sition that promises furtner steps towards the dreamed-of 
“beautiful America.” 
A Serious Problem in Congested Neighborhoods 
A serious defect in our con jested city conditions was point- 
ed out a short time ago in an address to the study class of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution in Chicago, by Mr. 
Edward B. DeGroot, general director of playgrounds and 
fieldhouses of the South Park board. It lies in the fact that 
no means of exercise or recreation is provided in the tene- 
ments and flat-buildings, which are devised only to accommo- 
date as many occupants as can be crowded into the dimen- 
sions of the structures for actual living purposes only. The 
needs of childhood, which comprehend exercise as an abso- 
lute necessity, are entirely ignored in these buildings, and 
as the congestion increases, the child problem becomes still 
more acute. Chicago is paying the penalty for one-sided phe- 
nomenal development, which, although she is spiritedly mak- 
ing tremendous efforts to remedy, the tasks are so much the 
more exacting because the remedies have become more difficult 
of economic application. It is well recognized that in so far 
as playground parks and fieldhouses affect the situation, Chi- 
cago leads the whole country. To improve conditions Mr. 
DeGroot suggests that every flat and tenement should be pro- 
vided with a front and back yard, or there should be a play- 
ground in the center of every block ; that schools should ac- 
quire model playgrounds for the pupils, made so attractive 
as to induce the children to use them both before and after 
school hours; that there should be play and social centers 
for all children who have no church attachments and who are 
compelled by poverty to go to work instead of to school. The 
age demands all this ; the problems are difficult, but their so- 
lution is the price we pay for twentieth century civilization,, 
and this we are undoubtedly willing to do. 
^ ^ 3n 
The Illinois State Art Commission 
Some short time since, the Art Commission of the state of 
Illinois, which was created under Senate Bill No. 415 , ap- 
proved June 4 , 1909 , addressed the Governor in a communica- 
tion in which three important suggestions were made. In a 
few words they were as follows ; That the grounds sur- 
rounding the Capitol Building at Springfield were inadequate 
to make the building and grounds effective, and that more ad- 
joining land should be purchased; that the same might be 
said of the Supreme Court Building; and that the State Fair 
Grounds were most crude and unsatisfactory in development. 
The Commission advised that all these grounds should be im- 
proved under plans made by the most competent landscape 
architects, using the beautiful native shrubbery and trees of 
Illinois in effective arrangement. Furthermore, the communi- 
cation closed with this unquestionable truism : “Government 
should always be an educator of the people in the direction 
of correct standards and appreciation of the best in art.” 
This broad idea makes an excellent text for the whole coun- 
try, for it is not difficult to realize what an incentive to the 
growth of public taste it would be if the landscape settings 
and art embellishments of our municipal and state buildings 
could be looked upon as standards by our citizens, and used 
as examples to which to direct the attention of the young as 
they advance in general knowledge. 
^ ^ 
The Location of the Field Museum in Chicago 
We do not believe for a moment that any law should be 
considered so grounded “in perpetuity” that future demands 
of public service and welfare must be nullified by its continu- 
ance, and certainly where such a long legal battle could be 
sustained, as has been the case in connection with the location 
of the Field Museum in Chicago, there must always remain a 
very strong suspicion that the opposing forces have some- 
thing more up their sleeves than the public welfare. The 
final decision to locate the splendid gift of the late Marshall 
Field in Jackson Park is a bitter disappointment to large 
numbers of Chicago citizens, and in the light of the location 
of such museums in the greatest cities of the world, it is a 
great mistake. Jackson Park is from six to eight miles dis- 
tant from what might be termed the city's civic center, and 
Grant Park in which it was expected the museum might be 
placed is practically in the great business district, and consid- 
ering that the lake front must probably always be marred by 
the Illinois Central R. R., the sincerity of the single opponent 
to the scheme is quite questionable in spite of the legal foren- 
sic effort to maintain it. 
