28 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Macadam driveway repairs were begun 
on Western avenue and on Garfield boule- 
vard in April, but because of the wear of 
automobile traffic, it was impossible to keep 
the macadam drives in a perfect state of 
repair at all times. 
During the latter half of April the 
movable drinking fountains were set out in 
the parks and along the boulevards and 
turned on, the ornamental fountains being 
turned on shortly after. 
Some warm weather in the latter part of 
April caused the grass to grow rapidly and 
lawn mowing was begun on May 2nd and 
continued till October 15th. During May 
the lawns were in excellent condition. 
Early in June after some days of hot 
weather which affected the lawns, grass- 
watering was resorted to and was con- 
tinued at intervals as occasion required 
until September 16th. In the larger Parks 
a new method of watering the grass was 
adopted. Where heretofore a man holding 
one hose moved from spot to spot over a 
small area, in this method the same man 
tended from 16 to 20 lawn sprays which 
were placed on the ground and all turned 
on continually, the man moving each spray 
to a new spot as he made his rounds, it 
taking him about twenty minutes to cover 
his territory. From 96 to 106 sprays were 
used on the lawns of Washington Park, 
these sprinkling continually from 5 :00 a. m. 
to 9:00 p. m. From the middle of June 
to the latter part of August the sprinkling 
was done by two shifts, one working from 
5:00 a. m. to 1 :00 p. m., and the other from 
1 :00 p. m. to 9:00 p. m. The average num- 
ber of men on this work daily in Washing- 
ton Park was 12. 
The total cost (including that of rubber 
hose worn out,) of watering the lawns on 
8 boulevards and in 20 parks during the 
season 1912, was $25,088.05. 
A total of 528,144 square yards of sur- 
face were treated with the light road oil 
during 1912, of which 429,539 square yards 
were given one application of the oil, and 
98,605 square yards received two applica- 
tions. On the surfaces treated once .253 
gallon of oil was applied per square yard 
on an average at a cost of $.0139 per square 
yard for oil and $.00449 per square yard 
for labor, a total cost per square yard of 
$.0154. 
Because of the scarcity of rough manure, 
216 y 2 tons of dried and shredded mule 
manure, analyzing highly in plant food ele- 
ments, were purchased for use on the Park 
and Boulevard lawns. The price of this 
fertilizer was $10.40 per ton when the bags 
in which it was shipped were returned in 
good orderi Deliveries were made on most 
of this in December and the mild weather 
was most suitable for its application. In 
Washington Park the manure was mixed 
with an equal quantity of rich black earth 
before it was spread on tbe lawn. It was 
applied as nearly as possible T /£ inch thick. 
Tennis nets were put up as early in the 
spring as the condition of the ground per- 
mitted, several being up in April. As soon 
as the ground became dry and firm the 
number was increased until in May 219 
courts were in use, and in June 230. 
The croquet courts in Washington Park 
were in use the latter part of April. Four 
courts are maintained in this Park through- 
out the summer, although playing is per- 
mitted on any part of the lawns where 
permanent injury to the grass does not re- 
sult. 
The two clay roque courts near the boat- 
landing in Washington Park were kept in 
the best of condition during the season, the 
surfaces being smoothed and sanded daily. 
The total number of persons employed in 
the Maintenance and Repair Division for 
all purposes during the fiscal year ranged 
from 230 persons and 1 hired team during 
the last week of February, 1913, to 690 per- 
sons and 28 hired teams in the third week 
of June, 1912. 
It has been the aim of this Division to 
attain a high standard in serving the public, 
and the various foremen have always re- 
sponded generously in their efforts in this 
regard. 
The opportunities for games, sports and 
other recreative activities provided in the 
various parks are more and more used by 
the public each year and the supervision, 
with the experience of the years, is grow- 
ing more efficient, resulting in a much 
greater usefulness to the people in the many 
directions of improving the general char- 
acter, both physical and moral, of those liv- 
ing in the localities in which the parks are 
located. 
A radius of one-half mile sweeping about 
one of the small parks as a center covers 
the average area furnishing regular visitors 
to such parks ; but the area of the bene- 
ficial influence of the park equipped with 
facilities for recreation to be found in one 
of the small parks extends to a much 
greater distance and can scarcely be over- 
estimated. 
It is interesting to note that different in- 
dividuals registered in the various depart- 
ments of the service in one of these parks, 
represent on the average at least 1,000 
families. 
COMPLETE DEVELOPMENT OF A MODERN CEMETERY 
An important question concerning the 
improvement of a large tract of land is 
the amount and character of work to be 
assigned to the lawns. The term lawn is 
very elastic and is applied to anything 
from a gnawed-off pasture to the real ar- 
ticle with a compactness and touch of a 
Brussels carpet. A great deal depends on 
the first work, but even with the greatest 
care in preparing the ground, selecting the 
grass seed, rolling, etc., it becomes more 
and more impressed on an old hand that 
the Englishman was not so far from being 
right when he said that it took a hundred 
years to make a lawn and two hundred to 
make a good lawn. In order to obtain the 
best results the whole area should be pre- 
pared during a period of two years or 
more before the final seeding, keeping it 
ploughed and harrowed, supplying it with 
manure, artificial fertilizer, lime or what 
is needed, keeping it periodically in motion 
to have all weeds destroyed, perhaps a 
By OTTO SONNE. 
IV. Grading and Lawn Making. 
crop or two ploughed under, and finally 
careful spading, rolling, raking, seeding, 
repeated rolling, etc., for ever after. This 
is costly, however, both in time and money, 
and not practical where the object is to 
have roads, drains, water pipe, grading, 
etc., in finished condition by contract, to- 
gether with the lawns, in a limited space 
of time, and particularly at a reasonable 
outlay. 
Under the conditions governing the Ar- 
lington Cemetery the construction work 
preceding the lawn work was too exten- 
sive to leave much time for the latter, and 
the area was so large that, both on ac- 
count of time and cost, spading was out of 
the question. Owing to the dovetailing of 
the various kinds of work, grading of 
lawns and roads, digging and backfilling 
of trenches, clearing of stumps, etc., and 
the necessity of having one step wait for 
the finishing of others, it was only the 
large, open areas that could be ploughed 
and handled during the first season of the 
contract, 1912; the final preparing of lawns 
could not be attacked in earnest until the 
summer of 1913, and there is some seed- 
ing left to be done this spring. This be- 
ing foreseen at the time of writing the 
specifications, the best that could be done 
was to prescribe fertilizing, ploughing, 
harrowing, rolling, seeding, rolling again, 
etc., with the knowledge that on the day 
of delivery on the part of the contractors 
the lawn cannot correspond to the English- 
man’s two hundred year lawn, or even the 
hundred year one, but that repeated care 
in the direction of mowing, weeding and 
rolling will finally bring the desired result. 
The grading of the lawns was planned 
with the view of maintaining the natural 
undulations of the ground, but obliterating 
all minor irregularities, and, of course, 
joining in a natural way the edges of the 
roads at their established grades without 
any distinct slopes that might remind of 
