PARK AND CEMETERY, 
45 
The bill declaring the Potomac Flats, Washington, D. C., 
a public park has passed. 
* * * 
The last New York legislature appropriated $1,000,000 for 
improvements and additions to the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, Central Park, New York. 
* * * 
A public spirited citizen and tree lover of Indianapolis, Ind., 
Park Commissioner, Albert Lieber, recently donated 700 trees 
to the Catholic societies of that city with which to plant a 
new street. 
* * * 
The City Council of Evanston, 111 ., has accepted the gift of 
100 bird, houses from one of its citizens, conditionally upon 
their being placed in the parks. The bird boxes will be one 
foot square and each will have two compartments. 
* * * 
The Improvement Committee of the Board of Park Com- 
missioners of Minneapolis, Minn., has recommended that the 
statue of Ole Bull, the gift of the Ole Bull Monument Associa- 
tion be placed in Loring Park. This is the first work of art to 
adorn the Minneapolis park system. 
* * * 
If the current planting season is a good one some 50,000 
trees and shrubs will have been set out in Schenley Park, Pitts- 
bnrgh, Pa., by spring. It is the intention of greatly increasing 
the nurseries of this park and to add the propagation of many 
varieties of trees and shrubs not now common. 
* * * 
The residents of Orange and East Orange, N.J., have placed 
$15,000 in the hands of the treasurer of the Essex County Park 
Commission to be used in the purchase of land and the construc- 
tion of a triangular park. The tract is about fifteen acres in ex- 
tent, and is situated in the three municipalities of South Orange, 
Orange, and East Orange. 
* * * 
The “red rain' 1 which fell in Melbourne, Australia, and its 
neighborhood seems to have performed one useful operation. 
The government horticultural expert reports that the red shower 
acted exactly as hellebore in cleansing the pear trees from the 
prevalent slug. He says that the trees were completely cleaned, 
and that the insects died instantly. 
* * * 
Indianapolis, Ind., has met with success in the disposal of 
park bonds, having disposed of the entire issue of $350,000 for 
$376,347.5°, or at a premium of a little over jy 2 per cent. The 
Indiana Trust Co., was the purchaser. As soon as the bonds are 
ready the money will be available, and active steps will immedi- 
ately be taken to secure the proposed tracts of land and it is ex- 
pected that the Board of Park Commissioners will acquire and 
improve as much land as possible this summer. The bonds are 
to run thirty years, with interest at rate of 4 per cent. 
* * * 
Many railroad corporations are realizing the value of im- 
proving their depot yards and other points on their lines of road, 
where a few flower beds or groups of shrubbery, lend a charm to 
surroundings otherwise very unattractive. The Chicago <fc 
Northwestern Ry., among others, is extending its work in this 
direction and keeps a gang of men with a superintendent con- 
stantly moving, setting out and caring for the little depot parks, 
beds and patches at numbers of points along the line. At some 
points quite elaborate displays are arranged and cultivated. It is 
worthy of note that depredation is of very rare occurrence, and 
is a striking indication of the public appreciation of the efforts 
of the railway companies. 
* * * 
A magnificent project of improvement in connection with 
the Puget Sound University and the city of Tacoma is in pro- 
gress. 1 he scheme as a whole is to create a parkway between 
Tacoma and the University grounds, a distance of some 
5 J 4 miles, to be continued to the shore of the bay a fur- 
ther mile and a half. In connection with this is the creation of 
suburban property on the route. The landscape work is to be 
of a high order to enhance the beauties of the natural scenery, 
and the improvement would mean an increased and permanent 
interest in Tacoma and its environs, as well as the fast growing 
University. Mr. E. O. Schwaegerl, landscape gardener of the 
University grounds, has been engaged on the plans for some 
time past. 
* * * 
The Minneapolis, Minn., Park Commissioners’ report for 
1896 shows total receipts, including a balance from previous year 
of $2,585.52, to be $255,409.53, and expenditures $255, 025.82. 
The receipts included an assessment for tree planting in the 
streets, of $3,843.30. President Folwell in his report makes a 
number of suggestions worthy of more general consideration. 
Among them are: 1. To provide legislation for es ablishing 
a building line on parkways, requiring abutters to keep their 
buildings at a specified distance in rear of the property line. 
2. The assumption by the city authorities proper of the interest 
on the park debt as it accrues — thus liberating a considerable 
portion of park funds for maintenance, improvement and en- 
largement. 3. The nursery ought to be enlarged, and enriched. 
Economy, convenience and taste unite in approving of such a 
policy. 
* * * 
Including a balance of $811.98 carried over from the previ- 
ous year, the report of the Board of Park Commissioners of Du- 
luth, Minn., for their last year, shows total receipts $38,881.46 
and expenditures $38,097.02. Among the receipts is an item of 
$1,507.85 obtained for assessments for tree planting. This work 
has been carried out in a systematic manner for the past three 
years. Of the forest class of trees some 5,000 have been planted 
along the city streets, on the general plan of one tree to every 
twenty- five feet of frontage. Assessments are levied by the 
Board of Public Works on the basis of $2.00 to $2.50 per tree ac- 
cording to size, set along any given street, which prices carried 
the Board’s guarantee for the replacing of all trees failing to grow, 
and for their maintenance otherwise for an agreed term of three 
years, but “which in practice, no doubt, will prove to be perpet- 
ual.” As far as can be computed this is about one half the cost 
of the trees at the end of the three years. 
* * * 
Dr. Harlwell in the course of a lecture on “Playgrounds and 
Athletic Grounds in Public Parks,” before the Boston Physical 
Education Society, gave some interesting data on the subject 
from European cities. He said that in many of the European 
cities the physical education is part of the regular school course, 
and the children are obliged to visit the playgrounds with their 
teachers. In London the city provides playgrounds in the park 
systems of all sorts of games, including tennis, golf, foot ball, 
cricket and various other kinds of outdoor sport. With all our 
parks here in Boston we only have one real playground in the 
city proper, that being at the Charlesbank. There are two other 
playgrounds, one at Wood Island Park and the other at Frank- 
lin Park. While in London they have more area devoted to 
playgrounds, we excel them in appointments and gymnastic ap- 
paratus. He suggested the idea of using old cemeteries for play- 
grounds as has been done in England, and it would be a very 
easy matter to do it in Boston. In London many of the old 
cemeteries have been turned into excellent playgrounds. 
