18 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
fence is quite as suitable for this purpose 
as a properly designed and well constructed 
iron fence. Such, for instance as shown 
on the front cover, which has been adopted 
by several Chicago parks and is made by 
The Stewart Iron Works Co. Full specifi- 
cations of this design and others equally 
as suitable for the purpose and as popular 
It is a great mistake to put off working 
roads until August or Sepfember, accord- 
ing to road experts of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. The roads should be 
worked when the soil is damp so as to 
make the soil bake when it dries out. If 
the roads are worked when they are dry, 
it takes more power to draw the machine, 
and besides dry earth and dust retain mois- 
ture and quickly rut after rains. The use 
of clods, sods, weeds or vegetable matter 
in building earth roads should be avoided 
because they also retain moisture. 
If the working of the roads is deferred 
until the latter part of the summer when 
the surface is baked dry and hard, they 
are not only difficult to work, but the work 
is unsatisfactory when done. Earth which 
is loose and dry will remain dusty as long 
as the dry weather lasts, and then turn to 
mud as the rains begin. By using the road 
machine in the spring while the soil is 
soft and damp, the surface is more easily 
shaped and soon packs down into a dry, 
hard crust, which is less liable to become 
dusty in summer and muddy in winter. 
Repairs to roads should be made when 
needed and not once a year after crops are 
laid by. Because of its simplicity, effici- 
ency, and cheapness, the split-log drag or 
some similar device is destined to come 
into more and more general use. With 
the drag properly built and its use well 
understood, the maintenance of earth and 
gravel roads become a simple and inex- 
pensive matter. Care should be taken to 
.make the log so light that one man can lift 
it with ease, as a light drag can be drawn 
by two medium sized horses and responds 
more readily to various methods of hitch- 
ing and the shifting position of the oper- 
ator than a heavier one. The best material 
for the drag is a dry cedar log, though 
elm, walnut, box elder or soft maple are 
excellent. Oak, hickory or ash are too 
heavy. The log should be from seven to 
ten feet long, and from eight to ten 
inches in diameter. It should be split care- 
fully as near the center as possible, and the 
heaviest and best slab chosen for the front. 
When the soil is moist, but not sticky, the 
drag does the best work. As the soil in 
the field will bake if plowed wet, so the 
road will bake if the drag is used on it 
when it is wet. If the roadway is full of 
holes or badly rutted the drag should be 
used once when the road is soft and slushy. 
The earth road can best be crowned and 
ditched with a road machine and not with 
picks and shovels, scoops and plows. One 
with park and playground superintendents, 
can be had by writing to the company. 
Their broad experience in designing and 
building iron fence for parks and play- 
grounds throughout the country, makes 
their opinion and advice on the subject of 
fencing valuable to those contemplating 
this improvement. 
road machine with a suitable power and 
operator will do the work of many men 
with picks and shovels, and in addition will 
do it better. If the road is composed of 
fine clay or soil it will sometimes pay to 
resurface it with top soil from an adjacent 
field, which has sand or gravel mixed with 
The proposed merger of the Metropol- 
itan Park Commission with the Metropol- 
itan Water and Sewerage Commission was 
denounced by Herbert J. Kellaway, a mem- 
ber of the Chamber of Commerce City 
Planning Committee, February 2, at the 
first annual dinner of the Boston Society 
of Landscape Architects at the Harvard 
Club in Boston. Mr. Kellaway declared 
that the park commission had much more 
work to do by itself and the time is not 
now ripe for the merger. The designers 
of several million dollars’ worth of parks, 
playgrounds and recreation plots were rep- 
resented among the twenty-five members 
who gathered at the initial event of the so- 
ciety. Professor James Sturgis Pray, in- 
structor of landscape architecture at Har- 
vard, who is president of the society, was 
toastmaster and gave a technical talk on 
the subject. Arthur Shurtleff, advisor to 
the Boston- park and recreation department, 
and Fletcher Steele also spoke. Mr. Kel- 
laway, who was the principal speaker, 
talked to the members on “The Metropol- 
itan Park System; Past, Present and Fu- 
ture.” Mr. Kellaway also outlined the 
plans of the parkways from Columbia road 
to the Neponset River and from West Rox- 
bury toward the Charles River at Water- 
town, which will include Hammond’s Pond 
and Saw Mill Brook Meadows in Brook- 
line. “When these are completed,” said 
he, “we will have seven miles of parkways 
running directly across the city.” 
On the bluffs at Harley Park at Boone- 
ville, Mo., overlooking the Missouri River, 
stands an old monarch of the forest, a sas- 
safras tree 50 feet high, 10 feet 6 inches in 
circumference 2 feet from the ground, and 
8 feet 6 inches in circumference 7 feet 
from the ground, where its branches begin, 
and having a spread of 34 feet. Disease 
has fastened its hold upon it so that its 
heartwood has rotted away. Man, its 
worst enemy, has so neglected it that in a 
it. This method, called the “top soil 
method,” is now in successful use in Clarke 
County, Georgia. 
Storm water should be disposed of 
quickly before it has had time to penetrate 
deeply into the surface of the road. This 
can be done by giving the road a crown or 
slope from the center to the sides. For an 
earth road which is 24 feet wide the center 
should be not less than 6 inches nor more 
than 12 inches higher than the outer edges 
of the shoulder. The narrow road which 
is high in the middle will become rutted 
almost as quickly as one which is too flat,- 
for the reason that on a narrow road all 
the traffic is forced to use only a narrow 
strip. 
few years the elements of nature will over- 
come the grand old monarch and it will re- 
turn to dust. A lover of nature in that 
city writes us : “It is a pity that such a 
wonderful specimen of our native trees 
can’t find a haven of retreat and safety in 
Shaw’s Garden of St. Louis or some other 
home of nature’s handiwork. This tree is 
perhaps the largest specimen of sassafras 
in existence.” 
C. S. Harrison, the well-known nursery- 
man and horticulturist of York, Neb., in 
commenting on the discussion of the Caro- 
lina poplar, recently appearing in these 
pages, writes : “Let me call your atten- 
tion to the Norway poplar, which is far 
ahead of the Carolina. I have them grow- 
ing side by side; the Norway is far more 
beautiful. The Carolina in this section 
cannot live more than 15 or 20 years. It 
soon gets ragged. The Norway is much 
hardier in every way.” 
New Parks and Improvements. 
R. H. Tacke, superintendent of parks, 
Lexington, Ky., has completed his plans 
for converting the Duncan property of 
acres, well set with large trees, which was 
recently purchased by the city at a cost of 
$26,000, into a public park and playground. 
The old residence will be converted into a 
shelter house and club rooms for the 
patrons of the park. Besides the usual 
playground arrangements there will be a 
sunken ball ground, four tennis courts., 
basketball and lav/ns for games. Asphalt 
walks will be built inside the park and 
concrete will be used for street pavement. 
Being surrounded on three sides by streets, 
a ligustrun regelia hedge, growing through 
a 40-inch wire fence, will be planted, with 
openings at the corners and intersecting 
streets. 
The Park Commission of Alton, 111., has 
planned a number of improvements to be 
carried out during the year, to cost $9,000. 
SPRING WORK FOR EARTH ROADS. 
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PARK NEWS. 
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