PARK AND CEMETERY. 
51 
concentration of energy and some re- 
liable park accountants would accom- 
plish far more efficient service. How- 
ever, waste of resources through the dis- 
honesty of the spoils system is beyond 
the scope of this paper. We are more 
concerned with its effects upon park 
maintenance. It often prevents, through 
its dissipation of funds, needed enlarge- 
ments of park areas, and brings about 
real defacements of already existing 
parks. Men must be employed, and if 
there is nothing else for them to do, 
they can trim trees and shrubbery; in 
consequence we have glaring inconsis- 
tencies, a naturalistic park plantation in 
the midst of clipped and brushed sur- 
roundings, and other introductions of 
man’s handicraft where it is out of place. 
More harm than good is done by 
knives and the saw in many of our 
parks, for the distortion of shrubbery 
groups, and the tendency to trim our 
trees is appalling. Each tree and shrub 
has a character of its own, if permitted 
to develop, and this applies as well to 
groups as to the individual. They are 
planted in their particular places to de- 
velop their own characteristics, and in 
this way make an impression upon the 
landscape. Shrubbery groups or borders 
that might have filled one’s heart with 
joy, and one’s soul with poetry, have 
often lost all their charm by having 
been trimmed in this most brutal man- 
ner. Trees naturally of beautiful forms, 
after suffering these changes resemble 
the cripple with arms amputated. Na- 
ture knows best how to mend her own 
ways, and too much interference results 
in destroying beauty, character and 
form. These costly activities add pres- 
tige to the park board, but they often 
give the parks’ real benefactors a false 
idea of the art of gardening. It is with- 
in the power, not to say the duties of 
the park directors, to limit activities 
resulting in such a false standard of 
maintenance. 
The emphasis laid upon the idea of 
“over-maintenance"’ might seem to ex- 
cuse untidiness in a park; but this is 
not the case. Too much importance can 
not be placed upon the necessity of 
cleanliness in the park. No matter how 
beautiful the park may be otherwise, 
dirt allowed to accumulate destroys its 
good qualities. Well kept roads and 
paths are one of the first requirements 
of a good park system. This means 
not only a clean and smooth road sur- 
face, but crisp, well kept edges as well. 
A clean-cut grass edge pleases the eye 
immediately. Whether the park meadow 
itself should be weekly cut, or be per- 
mitted to grow into hay, depends upon 
the character of the park as much as 
upon the usefulness of the meadow to 
the public. A standard of maintenance 
applied to the artificial city park may 
differ in degree from that of the rural, 
country park, but this difference in 
standard is due to the difference in the 
type of park. In rural parks the un- 
mown meadow lends more charm and 
real beauty to its surroundings than a 
clipped lawn. What is more beautiful 
than the meadow grasses waving gently 
in the breeze or the hay-stacks on the 
meadow later on? Or is there anything 
to compare with the clover meadow in 
bloom, the bees humming about the 
sweet-scented blossoms? Yet obviously 
this rural picture must have rural sur- 
roundings or it is out of place; a park 
set in a poor frame creates the same 
impression and suffers the same loss in 
good effect that a picture does under 
similar circumstances. 
Where the lawn is kept closely clipped, 
a few practical suggestions might not 
be amiss. Frequent cutting saves 
raking and strengthens the lawn, al- 
though close cutting during the dry and 
hot weather should be avoided. In such 
sections of the country where the pre- 
cipitation during the summer months is 
not sufficient to maintain the grass in 
a growing state, artificial watering be- 
comes necessary, and when such is the 
case night watering is far more bene- 
ficial than sprinkling in the hot sun. A 
burnt lawn has no beauty, neither is it 
useful to the park visitor, for it is un- 
clean and becomes a nuisance. A lawn 
full of weeds has no right to the name, 
and the best preventive against weeds is 
to have the lawn well fed. Material for 
this purpose may easily be had if the 
park owns a compost yard. The amount 
of refuse in the way of trimmings, weeds 
from the lagoon, etc., that accumulates 
during the year is enormous. Add to 
this some loam, stable manure and bone- 
meal and you have an ideal food for 
lawns and plantations, far better than 
other fertilizers, because it contributes 
the necessary humus. The vegetation 
will look so much better for its good 
treatment and its beauty in form and 
color will be so much more appreciable, 
that all labor will be bountifully repaid, 
and the park as a whole far better able 
to give in full measure its charm, beauty 
and restfulness to those that frequent it. 
The park border also needs constant 
attention, for there is nothing so en- 
couraging to depredation as a ragged 
and ill-kept border. Iron fences are con- 
sidered an infringement upon the rights 
of a free people. They are an injustice to 
the adjacent property owners, unattract- 
ive to the prospective home owners of 
the right kind, as well as uninviting to 
the park visitor, who here receives his 
first impression of the park. 
These are the objections usually 
brought forward against the use of a 
fence, and since it must be banished on 
these grounds, the planting which acts 
as a barrier to prevent cow-paths, etc., 
must be given all the more attention. 
An open and straggling border invites 
abuse, and the park will suffer in con- 
sequence. A clean, well kept border, 
on the other hand, inspires respect and 
demands good treatment, at the same 
time incalculably increasing the effect- 
iveness of the park itself. 
No less care must be given to the 
pools and lagoons, for their beauty and 
usefulness depend upon their being kept 
free from weeds. The 1 mirror lake loses 
its character entirely when vegetation 
is permitted to cover its surface. Boat- 
ing becomes a hardship instead of a 
pleasure, when the stench from the stag- 
nant water and decaying vegetation in 
the pond makes the lagoon a nuisance. 
The shore line must be well taken care 
of, for destruction by wave action, ice, 
or the little boy out for fish with his 
bent pin and grocery string, is con- 
stantly taking place. A dilapidated 
lagoon edge is an eyesore and detracts 
materially from the character and beauty 
of the water border. In winter the 
ponds and lagoons should be kept in 
first-class trim for the fleeting skaters, 
for, in our northern states, where the 
short season brings so few out-of-door 
enjoyments, we need all of such pleas- 
ures and benefits that a little extra labor 
will bring to us. When the long winter 
comes, when forest and field are clothed 
in their winter garments, remember that 
even then the park has not lost in 
beauty. It is merely pleasing in a dif- 
ferent way. The roads and paths should 
be kept in a passable condition for hiber- 
nated city folks, so that they may not 
lose the pleasures that are to be derived 
from the park in winter. 
Another essential to efficient park 
maintenance is a vigilant police force, 
to prevent depredation by the ignorant 
public, and to keep the moral atmos- 
phere of the park beyond reproach. A 
good police officer where there is actual 
need for one, is a profitable investment, 
but the higher the standard of mainte- 
nance, the less need is there for police 
surveillance. A well maintained park 
will be populated by the best kind of 
citizens, among whom vandalism is un- 
known. Picnickers are less apt to scatter 
refuse about the park where cleanliness 
is the motto of the park keepers. The 
public will patronize a park in propor- 
tion as it is kept in an attractive con- 
dition, and its usefulness, consequently, 
depends upon its good maintenance. 
Parks well maintained cultivate respect 
and inculcate ideals of cleanliness that 
are of incalculable value to the com- 
munity and raise its standard of culture 
and refinement. Jens Jensen. 
Chicago. 
