PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXII. Chicago, June, 1912 No. 4 
The Metropolitan Parks District, Boston, Mass. 
On Monday, June 2, Governor Foss, of Massachusetts, 
signed the $1,000,000 “Missing Link,” so-called Parkway bill 
for the Metropolitan Parks of Boston, which will practically 
consummate the magnificent scheme of parks and parkways 
about the “Hub.” The bill specified many minor projects 
in various parts of the district, allotting certain sums of 
money; one of them is the acquisition of land about Ham- 
mond Pond and Lost Pond, for which $100,000 is named in 
the bill. This is claimed to be the most beautiful section 
ot the proposed Parkway from Charles River Reservation to 
West Roxbury Parkway, and to the Arnold Arboretum and 
Franklin Park. The bill provides that $200,000 per annum 
shall be at the service of the Metropolitan Park Commission 
for five years. It is hardly possible to imagine a more mag- 
nificent scheme of parks and parkways than is afforded by 
that of the great Metropolitan Park system of Boston and its 
environs. Its possibilities for pleasure travel, in an unex- 
celled variety of scenery and natural beauty, cannot be esti- 
mated and it is available in all ways for the pleasure and 
health of the present and future generations. 
Highway Trees 
It is a charming idea, that of planting trees along our 
highways, and it should become the work of the Road 
Department of every state in the Union. The incentive that 
the New York State highway commissioners, which have 
charge of the great system of road building which has been 
under way for several years, offer in this direction should 
be a powerful influence on all highway propositions. These 
commissioners recently bought 150,000 red oak seedlings and 
some 15,000 birches and Carolina poplars, for planting along 
the roads, and it is their intention in due course to plant every 
road in the state. This should be taken up as a part of the 
“good roads” program in every state in which such work has 
been undertaken. But, of course, the planting of trees along 
the public highways must be done systematically and prop- 
erly, and at least under the supervision of qualified men. 
Beauty and utility are both combined in a tree lined highway; 
the trees lessen the effect of storms, provide, to some extent, 
timber in the future, afford delightful shade and are always 
beautiful to those who love or understand them. 
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Street Fountains 
Someone has said that “Fountains are not abundant in 
American cities and that we have much to learn in that 
respect from abroad.” This is true, and the need is just as 
pressing in this country as in any other, and it has been a 
recognized demand ever since people began to huddle to- 
gether in cities. Nor is it altogether a need confined to the 
latter, for throughout the country the dearth of water for 
drinking purposes on the country roads is apparent any and 
every day. The American disposition does not seem as 
yet to have developed itself very seriously in the direction 
of ministering to thirsty humanity from natural sources 
where any expense is involved, notwithstanding that most 
roads at intervals afford opportunities for water supply at very 
little cost indeed. In cities it should be first of all a civic 
duty to provide drinking water on the public streets for 
both man and beast, where indications mark it as necessary; 
it is a duty to the people on grounds of both ethical and 
sanitary importance. Moreover, the drinking fountain in 
our city thoroughfares affords so economical and appro- 
priate a means of memorializing public-spirited citizens, 
that it is a matter of wonder that many more such memorials 
are not erected as private benefactions for that purpose 
alone. They can be provided at low cost or high cost, and 
may be made decorative features of a street even if of 
less elaborate and costly designs, and in either case they 
will meet one of the requirements of civic progress. 
Ng V<g 
Save the Birds 
At a meeting of the Illinois Audubon Society held a 
short time since, Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, of New York, 
secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies, 
appealed to the members to take stringent measures to have 
adequate laws passed in Illinois for the protection of the 
birds. All states should take up this suggestion, and keep 
“everlastingly at it” until a response is made in the way 
of adequate laws by their respective legislatures. The ruth- 
less and barbaric methods employed by the bird hunters, 
as a class, alone merit heavy punishment, and without the 
judicial extra-legal clemency so common to our judiciary 
today, and so detrimental after all, because often misapplied, 
to the encouragement of a national respect for law. Such 
laws are are not alone necessary for the protection of the 
birds in dieir wild roosting and nesting haunts, but are 
equally so throughout the country, where so much thoughtless 
destruction is carried out, and under the plea of sport. The 
idea of shooting the life out of a songster for sport! And 
this suggests that the game wardens under existing state laws 
should be of more responsible caliber, as a rule. With rea- 
sonable and comprehensive state laws and responsible law- 
protecting as well as bird-protecting law officers, a re- 
sponsive chord ought to be struck in the average citizen’s 
nature that would lead him to enjoy and not destroy those 
charming accompaniments of wood and vale — our birds. 
Ng 
A Beautiful Railway 
Those responsible for the “Beautification” of the new 
electric railway, a subsidiary corporation of the New York, 
New Haven & Hartford Railroad, running between the upper 
part of New York City and New Rochelle, a distance of 
some twelve miles, are to be congratulated on their move- 
ment in the right direction. It is not only an excellent ad- 
vertising proposition without the assistance of the billboard, 
but it will have a decidedly uplifting tendency upon all the 
commuters and travelers over its mileage. There will be 
no criticism of such efforts on the part of the public. Beauty 
and harmony with the landscape is the keynote, and the 
buildings, even to the signal towers, are of pleasing design, 
while the landscape gardener has improved his opportunity, 
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Park Consolidation in Chicago 
The Mayor of Chicago recently made a recommendation 
that measures be taken to consolidate the park systems of 
that city. There now exist three large systems — the South 
Park, West Park and Lincoln Park — and a number of 
smaller ones, and the majority of disinterested citizens realize 
that there is no economy in such conditions. There is no 
doubt but that both efficiency and economy will be served 
by consolidation, and that the complexity of the present sj r s- 
tem creates confusion and lack of harmony in the park 
affairs of the young great city. Reform is in the air and it 
is to be hoped that when it actually comes, park systems 
throughout the country will be entirely removed from the 
baneful influences so common in the past. 
