PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXI Chicago, January, 1912 No. 11 
Shall We Have a Bureau of National Parks? 
At the recent convention of the American Civic Association 
at Washington, D. C., the Secretary of the Interior said that 
the national parks, like Topsy, have “just growed.” “There is 
now no consistent legislation concerning the parks, in fact 
there is a wide divergence in the statutes under which they 
are administrated.” President Taft said “we cannot carry 
them on effectively unless we have a bureau which is itself 
distinctively charged with the responsibility of their man- 
agement and for their building up.” 
There can be no question about the advisability of such 
a bureau, but as a matter of course its usefulness would 
depend chiefly upon the sort of men chosen to do the work 
and the power placed in their hands. It is perhaps not the 
compiling of statistics, the distribution of literature or illus- 
trations, or the influencing of public sentiment, much as such 
things may help the good cause, that is needed, but practical 
field work. As President Taft says: we need uniformly good 
roads taken care of on some general plan and not subject 
to the whims of a local superintendent, or concessionaries, 
whose chief object is to induce visitors to patronize his hotel 
or touring outfits. It is probable that much of the actual 
field work can be best done by the engineers of the War 
Department, and at least the co-operation of this branch, of 
the Government would seem to be very important. The one 
thing to avoid is a bureau established to make a place for a 
head and a number of clerks, whose chief qualifications are 
political influence. Such a bureau would probably only make 
matters still more complicated with a lot of red tape, of little 
or no practical advantage over the present system. What is 
needed is a bureau headed by a practical, paid man, with 
the necessary assistants, who will not occupy valuable space 
in some public building in Washington, but who will spend 
their time in the actual field of work. 
Ng 
Science and Horticultural Progress 
Prof. C. S. Sargent recently expressed regret at the lack 
of popular interest in our scientific horticultural institutions. 
He called attention to the paltry attendance of visitors at 
these institutions, and the lack of cooperation by commercial 
nurserymen in their work. It seems a strange commentary 
on our lives and aims that the complaint is applicable to our 
nation as a people. We are appreciative of any new discov- 
ery in the electric world, or of inventions promising facility 
or economy in the transaction of business. Is it that the 
calibre of the individuals who discover means of advance- 
ment in industrial life is superior to that upon which we are 
dependent in the horticultural world? Whence comes the 
lack of forethought, ingenuity or sheer successful force so 
evident in manufacturing and so deplorably absent in hor- 
ticultural pursuits? Prof. Sargent cites a case where he sent 
a collection of new plant introductions to a nurseryman with 
the understanding that they would be increased and made 
horticulturally available, and later found that the whole con- 
signment had been sold. We know of park officials who are 
actually buying these newer sorts of plants, propagating them 
and planting them out in public grounds for popular edifica- 
tion, but even so the fact remains that our nurserymen do 
not sufficiently cater to the better element of our people — 
the real plant lovers — and why not? Surely it does not in- 
volve commercial failure, as witness some of the old world 
houses who have made that a tenet of their business for gen- 
erations. Vilmorin and Andrieuse of Paris, Veitch of Chelsea, 
Haage and Schmidt of Erfurt, Sparth of Rixdorf, Pynard 
A'an Gaert of Belgium and others have succeeded commer- 
ciall}^ quite as much as in evolving new means of presenting 
materials — sometimes new material, sometimes highly i,n- 
proved forms of the old. As our citizenship becomes more 
affluent and cultured, there will be an extending demand for 
the wealth of the world’s vegetation, and some of our progres- 
sive, intelligent and substantial nurserymen will find a field 
for secure, permanent and profitable development in sup- 
plying the demands. We shall watch with interest the 
progress of any who attempt it, and it will be of interest to 
know what at least one of our commercial houses has seen 
fit to send a collection to China in conformity with this gen- 
eral policy. 
NP Vjg 
The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D. C. 
We very much regret to notice that certain interests have 
arrayed themselves against the Park Commission’s scheme of 
site and memorial for our immortal Lincoln, and are urging 
the building of a road from Washington to Mount Ver- 
non. It was hardly to be expected that any national mem- 
orial backed with so large an appropriation by Congress 
would escape without some efforts from some sources to 
divert the intention into interested channels, and therefore, 
the efforts of the American Institute of Architects to pre- 
vent such diversion should be warmly and effectively en- 
dorsed. Both the character of the memorial and the site 
were recommended in the report of the Washington Park 
Commission in 1902, and when Congress proposed to enact a 
law for the erection of a memorial to Lincoln in 1909, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt asked for a report from the Fine Arts Com- 
mission, appointed in January 1909, upon the various sites 
suggested. This Commission after very careful consideration 
recommended the site, proposed by the Park Commission in 
1902, as being the “most commanding situation it is possible 
to imagine.” Although the decision finally rests with Con- 
gress the people should not allow any tampering with the 
recommendation of the greatest authorities of the country 
on the subject that could be brought together to determine 
the question such as the men who made the above recom- 
mendations. The idea of a road costing between 30 and 40 
millions of dollars taking the place of a great public art 
memorial, to honor the great name, and embellish the beauti- 
ful city, savors too much of automobiles and Real Estate. 
Every reader should at once communicate with his repre- 
sentatives in Congress, and demand a vote from the lines 
of the Commissions’ reports. 
Ng Ng 
The Annual Cement Shows 
There will be three Cement Shows the coming year. 
The second annual in New York City, January 29-Feb- 
ruary 3; the fifth annual in Chicago, February 21-28, and 
the first annual in Kansas City, Mo., March 14-21. These 
cement exhibitions are being recognized as fixed insti- 
tutions and are conducted under the management of the 
Cement Products’ Exhibition Co. The increasing use of 
cement not only for large constructive purposes, but in 
so many directions of every-day utility, and for such 
varied productions, coupled with judicious advertising, 
has attracted the attention not only of builders and build- 
ing material dealers throughout the country, but has made 
these exhibitions quite popular with the general public. 
