PARK AND CEMETERY. 
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The Audubon Society in Chicago has recently, in conjunc- 
tion with the state game warden, secured a decision against the 
wholesale capture of native song birds for the purpose of supply- 
ing the Chicago bird market. The societies interested in the 
protection of birds were represented by counsel, and a decision 
was given declaring the trapping of the birds illegal. A large 
number of birds were seized by the warden in one of the stores 
to make the test case. An appeal was taken, but the case is an 
important one for the traffic is much more extensive than would 
be supposed. 
* * * 
The decision of Judge Hebbard that the members of the 
Italian Cemetery Association have no title to land in the San 
Francisco City cemetery, means, says the local press, transforma- 
tion of that tract sooner or later into a park. It originally con- 
sisted of 200 acres, but some 60 acres on Point Lobas was bought 
by the government for fortification purposes. The remaining 
140 acres slopes to the east and has a warm south and east ex- 
posure. It is proposed to urge the government to purchase the 
whole tract and make a military park about the fortifications, 
but in any case it will ultimately become a park. 
* * * 
The movement to open the grounds of the public schools in 
the summer for playgrounds for the neighborhood children is as- 
suming practical shape, and several of the Chicago schools have 
been opened for that purpose. More than this it is intended 
that the basements and one room shall be devoted to kindergar- 
ten classes and nature study, all of which is indicative of the 
trend of the times. New York City has also entered this field of 
community improvement, and has provided ample means for 
play in the school grounds set apart, besides well appointed edu- 
cational features. Tent playgrounds have also been erected in 
the public parks and other convenient locations. 
* * * 
The annual report of the Park Commissioners of Milwaukee, 
Wis., for the year ending March 4, 1898, shows total receipts for 
park purposes to have been $212,995.94. The expenditures were 
$110,893.51, divided as follows: Regular pay rolls $9,621.96; 
labor on parks $28,770.69; expended for improvements, mater- 
ial, etc., $72,500.86. Deducting these amounts from receipts 
leaves the sum of $102,102.43 for the current year’s work. A 
large amount of improvement work was carried along in the 
seven parks of the city, which included two large steel arch 
bridges across the ravines in Lake Park costing complete $36,- 
376 47. There were some 400,000 small trees and shrubs im- 
ported from foreign growers and planted in the parks nursery. 
Last fall 50,000 spring flowering bulbs were planted in the grass 
in different parts of Lake Park. 
* * * 
The following note on the carriage roads in Berlin carries 
with it some suggestions relative to cost and durability of asphalt 
paving. According to Consul General Goldschmidt the area 
of carriage pavements in that city is 6,500,405 square yards. 
Of this a fraction less than 74 per cent, is stone pavement, about 
25 per cent, asphalt, and a fraction over 1 per cent, wood pave- 
ment. The proportion of asphalt is steadily increasing. The 
soil consists of coarse, gritty sand, forming apparently an excel- 
lent foundation for the heavy eight-inch layer of gravel and ce- 
ment, over which the two-inch covering of asphalt is spread, mak- 
ing a strong and durable pavement. The average price of asphalt 
pavement in Berlin is $2.80 per square yard. The city govern 
ment grants the contracts for laying the pavements, and also for 
keeping them in repair for twenty years, the first five years with- 
out extra compensation, and alter that for an annual compensa- 
tion of 10 cents per yard. 
* * -* 
It is interesting to note in connection with the large number 
of Improvement Societies springing up over the countiy, the 
various lines of work which appear to have had an influence on 
bringing about their organization. In a number the embellish- 
ment of the town in the way of squares and small park areas is 
prominent; in others the care of trees and the promotion of tree 
planting; in others the cleaning up of the town, getting rid of 
waste paper and other unsightly refuse; while in others educa- 
tional effort|stands out, looking to the instruction of the school • 
children in good citizenship and the love of nature. Combina- 
tions or modifications of these points in full or in part, together 
with many others which will suggest themselves, form a basis 
for improvement work in every community in the country. 
Where progress is the watchword, there is always work to do, 
and an active improvement society is one of the most potent 
factors in the welfare of a community. 
* * * 
In some notes on a preliminary visit to Hubbard Park, Me- 
riden, Conn., addressed to Mr. Walter Hubbard, by Olmsted 
Bros., landscape architects, Boston, occurs the following practi 
cal suggestion: Hubbard Park is a tract of some 700 acres com- 
prising some beautifully wooded, rugged scenery, over which 
the ruthless woodcutter has committed depredations. “It 
would be ar. enormous advantage to the future beauty and inter- 
est of the park, however, to gradually and continuously improve 
the character of the woods with a view to bringing them into a 
condition resembling that which they would have had if no 
periodical wholesale cutting for fire wood had been allowed. The 
best way to accomplish this desirable end would be to employ 
on a salary a well-educated forester of artistic temperament 
whose principal work would be the marking of trees, mostly of 
course, of the less desirable varieties, which would be cut and re- 
moved during the winter by a small gang of skillful men to be 
selected from among the laborers regularly employed on the 
park. The wood cut ought to sell for enough to at least partially 
defray the expense of improving the quality and picturesqueness 
of the woods. 
* * * 
A correspondent writes of the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, 
in a recent issue of the Florists Exchange as follows: This is 
rose week here, and 2,000 different varieties and colors, from all 
sections of the temperate zone, may to day be seen in flower. 
Every day sees new and rare specimens blossom forth, showing 
some gorgeous colorings, and visitors may now see all shades, 
from the purest white to the deepest crimson, and all varieties, 
rock roses, Scotch and Alpine roses, and Japanese roses, follow- 
ing each other in rapid succession and presenting a sight un- 
equaled in the locality. Great credit is due Mr. Jackson Dawson, 
who reigns over this place, and it must be a source of great satis- 
faction to him. Rhododendrons, with their rich colors, vie with 
the roses in popular favor, and it must be said that they attract 
a great deal of attention and commendation. The heather has 
begun to bloom, and the snowballs, in great clumps, present a 
pretty scene, completely loaded down as they are with bloom. 
The Arboretum has had an addition of 75 acres to it, for which 
plans are not yet complete, but where it is expected that more 
than 10,000 varieties of trees, plants and shrubs, which are now 
being started in the nursery, will be set out. It is expected to 
have this done in another year. 
