PARK AND CCACTCRY 
105 
< PARK NOTES. > 
The city council committee of Huntington, W. Va , has se- 
lected a site of 60 acres for a public park in that city. 
The stockholders of the fair grounds at Grand Rapids, Mich. , 
have agreed to convert them into a public park. The property 
consists of about twenty-five acres of very nicely located land in 
the residence portion of the city. 
^ ^ ^ 
A branch of the Town Improvement Association of Ames- 
bury. Mass., desiring to improve a certain spot, is preparing for 
a series of athletic games to be held on the fair grounds, the 
charges for admission to be devoted to the cause. 
* * * 
The country commissioners of Hennepin Co., Minn., have 
received a proposition for the donation of some 260 acres of 
land, covered with natural forest growth, situated on a lake a 
few miles southwest of Lake Minnetonka, for park purposes, by 
a Mr. Dexter of St. Louis. 
* » * 
An association has been incorporated in Berlin, Wis. , under 
the title of the Advancement Association of the City of Berlin^ 
with the purpose of acquiring by gift or purchase real or person- 
al property in that city for public parks and other purposes for 
the improvement of Berlin. 
* * * 
The project of establishing a state park in northern Wiscon. 
sin, with Star lake as a central gem in the forest reserve, is 
warmly urged by a number of influential men. It is a place of 
great natural beauty, and it will preserve a portion of the great 
North woods from the general destruction incident to the march 
of civilization. 
* * 
In the precincts of the cathedral of Hidesheim there is a 
rose tree said to be more than 1,000 years old. The tree for some 
years past has given signs of decay, and in order to preserve it, 
several gardeners and botanists were called in, who have not on- 
ly succeeded in keeping the tree alive, but have put it in a flour- 
ishing condition. They expect soon to see it bearing a rich crop 
of roses. 
» -jf -Si- 
Governor Rich, of Michigan, has received from Secretary of 
War Lamont the documents formally transferring to the state of 
Michigan the military reservation, buildings and lands of the 
national park on Mackinac Island. By the terms of the transfer 
the property is to be used for a state park and for no other pur- 
pose, and whenever the state ceases to use it for such purpose it 
will revert to the United States. 
* # * 
Mr. F. L. Olmsted objects to the crowding of Prospect 
Park, Brooklyn, with statues and monuments, which in time 
would detract from the natural beauties of the place . He says: 
“Appropriate places for all the monuments that will be erected 
can be found in the small parks and public squares, or open spa- 
ces here and there in the city, where they would show to advan- 
tage and not interfere with the view of broad landscapes.” 
-Si- * -It 
Vermilye & Co., New York bankers, have been awarded 
$1,000,000, of the two and a half millions of bonds author- 
ized to be issued for the prosecution of the Essex Co.,N. J., park 
scheme. This will give the commissioners all the necessary 
funds needed for the present and a stipulation of the agree- 
ment of sale is that no more bonds be issued the balance of the 
year. The price paid is $100.77 accrued interest, 
A good suggestion, and one based on long experience, is that 
of John Dick, veteran florist and gardener of Philadelphia. It 
is that the city should remove all the bodies from the inter- urban 
cemeteries, to the upper end of Fairmount Pa.rk, and thus ac- 
quire ground for park and pleasure purposes, and in case cited, 
make use of land to some extent inaccessible and unemployed. 
This is a solution of a problem which in a few instances is being 
carefully carried out. 
* -X- ■» 
Methuen, Mass., will soon come into possession of a valuable 
tract of land, the gift of Mr. E. W. Searles, which is offered to the 
town for a public park. The lot is a large one. Mr. Searles, 
who is seeking to improve the surroundings of his mansion, de- 
sires the town to widen Lawrence street in front of the High 
.School, in consideration of which he will give a second lot of and 
tor the enlargement of the school grounds. His gifts to the town 
are said to be the first steps in a plan of public improvements to 
be carried out on an extensive scale. 
» -X 
A conference was recently held at Alexandria Bay, New 
York, between the New York senate game committee and the 
Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries. The conference 
was held with the object, if possible, of making arrangements lor 
an international park somewhere among the Thousand Islands, 
between Kingston and Prescott on the Canadian side and Cape 
Vincent and Ogdensburg on the American side. Of all the ideal 
places for a park, it will be conceded that the Thousand Islands 
of the St. Lawrence is beyond question. 
« X -X 
The curious conceits in the way of plant pictures and oddi- 
ties in ornamental gardening, for which Washington Park, Chi- 
cago, has been noted in the past are not in evidence this year, 
and will, of course, be missed by many admirers of this depart- 
ment of gardening. Douglrsand Garfield parks on the West 
side, have two noticeable examples; the former a mound forty 
feet in diameter by twelve feet high, divided into four parts con- 
taining symbols in plants of Zoology, Geology, Astronomy and 
Botany. Garfield Park has a representation of old Fort Dear- 
born, of large dimensions. 
* * * 
An act was passed by the last legislature of Indiana to 
establish a Department of Public Parks in cities of over 100,000 
inhabitants according to the last preceding United States census, 
and creating a board of Park Commissioners. The act provides 
a board of five members to be appointed by the Mayor, who 
shall serve without compensation, but whose expenses and clerk 
hire shall be supplied. It further prescribes the duties of said 
board, its powers, features under its control and financial condi- 
tions. It also defines certain relations between the city author- 
ities and the board, and the methods to be pursued in acquiring 
property and assessing for payments for same. 
-XXX 
The site for the Botanic Garden in Bronx Park, New York, 
has been selected by Calvert Vaux, the landscape architect of 
the Park Commission, assisted by Mr. Samuel Parsons Jr., Park 
Superintendent. The site takes in the most beautiful sections 
of Bronx Park, including the noted Hemlock Grove, which by 
resolution is absolutely preserved from disturbance in any way 
whatever, unless in the presence of a representative of the Park 
Board. Special attention was paid to including Hemlock Grove 
in the new Garden, because it is the most beautiful natural spot 
in the entire park System. At the same time, to guard against 
any possible injury to the grove in the future, the above restric- 
tion was made to guarantee its preservation. The site combines 
such varied kinds of scenery as will make it especially desirable 
for the purposes, to which it is to be devoted. Two hundred 
and fifty acres is the area surveyed. 
