PARK AND CEMETERY. 
177 
his can only be obtained through a commission having 
absolute authority to plant, prune or remove trees when- 
ever or wherever, in its opinion, it is deemed advisable. 
The Board of Park Commissioners of Minneapolis 
has authority under the park act to plant trees on any 
street and assess the cost of the same on abutting prop- 
erty. This authority, as a rule, is not exercised except 
when petitioned to do so by a majority of the residents 
of the street. 
The cost of planting and caring for the trees for 
three years is about five dollars, but this sum is undoubt- 
edly under, rather than over, the actual expense. The 
site of the city being underlaid with graivel, it is neces- 
sary to remove at least five yards of this material, which 
is replaced with the same quantity of rich loam in which 
the tree is planted. It would be a paying investment 
for the owner of the property if double the amount of 
loam were furnished and charged for. 
Each tree is protected by a guard, which serves the 
double purpose of protecting the bark from the rays of 
the sun and from the teeth of the horses. 
The planting of and caring for street trees constitute 
one of the most important duties of the park commis- 
sion, and the results of its work have been very gratify- 
ing. Many of the streets have been improved with uni- 
form rows of trees, and the number of petitions for thus 
improving thoroughfares increases each year. 
Some of the older trees which were planted before 
the care of this work was assumed by the Board of Park 
Commissioners show the usual hap hazard way in which 
planting was done when each owner of a forty-foot lot 
exercised his own will. Some planted four or five trees^ 
each of a different variety, and never qared for them. 
Others did not plant any, and a few set and cared for 
trees which have grown to be fine specimens of their 
kind. 
Up to the time the park commission became the cus- 
todian of the street trees, more had been planted and 
had died, either through ignorance in planting or through 
neglect, than were then growing. The loss since that 
time has been less than two per cent. 
A commission having charge of the trees in the city 
of Washington has absolute control and care of them. 
If it decided to use a certain variety on a street, that 
variety is planted and there is no appeal from its de- 
cision. As a result, there is no city within my know- 
ledge having so many unbroken rows of healthy trees. 
Other cities in this country have undertaken the 
control of street ornamentation with great success, and 
it is to be hoped that all will follow their example. 
As a rule, our roadways on our residence streets are 
too wide and there is not space enough given for trees 
and other ornamentation. Fine effects are produced on 
an eighty foot street by making the roadways thirty feet 
wide, leaving twenty-five feet inside the curbing on each 
side, six feet of which next the lot line, is for a walk 
and nineteen feet for grass snd flower beds, or groups of 
ornamental shrubs, and shade trees planted from forty 
to fifty feet apart. 
Many object to having so much space between the 
trees when they are young, and this accounts for their 
crowded condition in many of our older cities. To 
overcome this, some writers recommend planting of 
rapid growing varieties between the more slow growing, 
which are to be removed when the branches of the per- 
manent trees have grown to fill the space. 
Another plan which I have seen in an eastern city 
gives a park-like appearance which is very pleasing. 
That gives a sidewalk next to the lot line six feet in 
width, a planting space for grass and trees six feet, and 
two roadways eighteen feet wide and a center planting 
space of twenty feet filled with grass and shrubs, or grass 
and beds of flowers. 
There is no necessity for a roadway over thirty feet 
in width on any residence street of sixty feet ; one that 
is wider is entirely out of proportion. 
There is not enough attention given to the orna- 
mentation of streets. There is no reason why the resi- 
dence portion of our cities and villages should not be 
made as attractive as a park. A few ordinances regu- 
lating the alignment of buildings, the setting of trees and 
care of planting spaces, would accomplish this desirable 
result. But, better yet, by the education of the people 
through such organizations as the Village and Neighbor- 
hood Improvement Association, the Brooklyn Tree 
Planting and Fountain, and the Park and Outdoor Art 
Associations. 
The gum trees of Australia are the tallest trees in 
the world. They average 300 feet in height. 
* * * 
One of the largest forests in the world stands on 
ice. It is situated between Ural and the Okhotsk Sea. 
A well was recently dug in that region, and at a deptn 
of 250 feet the ground was still frozen. 
* * * 
After trying all sorts of wood as street pavement. 
London has at last come to the conclusi n that Tasman- 
ian “stringy bark” is most enduring and generally sat- 
isfactory, being without the slippery surface which soon 
manifests itself in some other hard woods. The stringy 
bark, which grows all over Tasmania, has a rougher sur- 
face than the blue gum, thereby giving in greasy weather 
a better foothold for man and beast. It is in the south 
of the Island of Tasmania that the chief supply of tim- 
ber is obtained, the forests coming down almost to the 
water’s edge, thus making the cost and difficulty of 
transport small; in fact, at some of the mills vessels of 
3,000 tons could partly lay alongside the pier and com- 
plete their loading by barges while lying in a perfectly 
secure anchorage. The London authorities experimented 
with woods from all parts of the world before settling on 
the Tasmania article. 
