PARK AND CEMETERY. 
135 
ICE CONDITIONS ON TABLE ROCK, QUEEN VICTORIA, NIAGARA FALLS’ PARK. 
grading and planting were accom- 
plished by day labor under the Park 
staff. Of necessity the progress of 
the latter work is governed by the 
progress made upon road construc- 
tion, and follows it as each section is 
completed. During the early months 
of the year grading and levelling was 
commenced upon the section between 
the Park and Chippawa, and in the 
months of April and May planting and 
seeding were proceeded with on a 
mile of length south of Chippawa 
where the grading works had already 
been finished. 
The bridges along the route consist 
of six spans varying from thirty feet 
to seventy feet, only one of which was 
built before 1911. The general type 
of construction is the same for all 
of the spans, but the architectural fea- 
tures have been altered in each case 
so that each bridge presents an indi- 
vidual appearance. 
The first structure, built at Usher’s 
Creek, three miles south of the Park, 
is of reinforced concrete, with para- 
pet walls, built of Queenston blue 
limestone with a cobweb finish. Boy- 
er’s Creek bridge, 6.8 miles south of 
the Park, has its spandrel and para- 
pet walls of field stone and boulders. 
Black Creek, the longest span (seven- 
ty feet) was given the most attention, 
and is veneered to the lower side of 
the arch with Beamsville grey lime- 
stone built in Ashlar style. The rail- 
ing consists of a base course, support- 
ing pilasters with ornamental iron 
panels between. Baker’s Creek, 9.3 
miles south of the park, has spandrel 
and parapet walls of red sandstone, 
blotched with grey, and is curved out- 
ward at either entrance. Miller’s 
Creek bridge, 11.5 miles from the 
Park, is the only structure built en- 
tirely of concrete, while Frenchman’s 
Creek bridge, fifteen miles from the 
Park, is built of Queenston grey lime- 
stone in massive blocks of cut stone. 
In connection with the system of 
Landscape Architecture an attempt to 
restore the natural groves of trees has 
been made. The method consists of 
removing all dead trees, enriching the 
area to be planted with fertile soil, 
thence planting vigorous young trees 
of the species indigenous to the lo- 
cality. This work has proved suc- 
cessful in the Queenston Heights por- 
tion of the park system, where the 
growth is chiefly that of Coniferae. 
By this method the natural landscape 
features are preserved, while the re- 
moval of dead trees affords to the liv- 
ing a better chance of survival. 
With the object of improving the 
lawns wherever a state of exhaustion 
was apparent in the sickly yellow col- 
or of the grass, an application of ten 
to fifteen tons of stable manure per. 
acre was afforded during the early 
winter. A thorough top dressing was 
given in the Queenston Heights Park, 
and considerable stretches of lawn in 
the Queen Victoria Park were treated 
in like manner. The yellow appear- 
ance of the grass could hardly be due 
to an over acid condition in the soil 
as the underlying rock is limestone, 
lime must therefore be present in suf- 
ficient quantities to preserve neutral- 
ity. 
FAMOUS GARDEN CITIES 
The garden communities of Letch- 
worth, Hampstead, Bournville and 
Port Sunlight have demonstrated that 
clean, wholesome comfortable cottages 
are possible for everybody and at the 
very low rent of from five dollars a 
month upward. They have demonstrat- 
ed, too, that life is lengthened, infant 
mortality reduced and labor made more 
efficient and contented. 
In the building of garden villages 
three things are recognized as funda- 
mental ; one, the purchase of a large 
area of low-priced agricultural land 
in advance of any development ; two, 
the permanent control of the whole 
area, as well as of streets, open spaces, 
and building regulations by the corpo- 
ration of that city; and three, the reser- 
vation by the community, through the 
private corporation promoting the en- 
terprise, of the increasing land values 
which the building of the community 
creates. The garden city is in effect its 
own ground landlord. Indirectly it is 
a house-builder and house-owner. It 
operates through a private corporation 
which owns the land, pledged by its 
charter to limit its dividends to 5 per 
cent on the capital actually invested, 
and to use the speculative increase of 
land values for the community. 
The main difference between the or- 
dinary city and the garden city is this : 
the former is left to the unrestrained 
license of speculators, builders, owners, 
to a constant conflict of public and 
private interests ; the latter treats the 
community as a unit, with rights su- 
perior to those of any of its individ- 
ual members. One is a city of unre- 
lated, and for the most part uncon- 
trolled, private property right ; the other 
is a community intelligently planned 
and harmoniously adjusted with the 
emphasis always on the rights to the 
community rather than on the rights of 
the individual property owner. — From 
“The Garden Cities of England,” by 
Frederic C. Howe, in Scribner's. 
