PARK AND CC/nCTCRY. 
207 
opponents would claim, or even to be classed among 
luxuries, all right, perhaps, when every other so- 
called practical want is satisfied, but whether that 
time be now or a century hence, it matters little; 
instead of this you may boldly claim that as civili- 
zation has shown that the “old oaken, bucket’’ must 
give way to the system of waterworks, and the cess- 
pool in each citizen’s back yard to the modern 
methods of sewerage, so the present tendency to 
congregate in the large cities and towns with their 
health and nerve destroying characteristics, must be 
offset by the preservation of such localities as may 
be especially adapted to the purpose by their natural 
beauties, that there may be places to which the 
tired denizens of the cities may retreat for rest of 
mind and body, and where by means of out door 
recreation, new strength may be gained for daily 
work; and so when you a-k that public moneys be 
devoted to this purpose it is not merely as a matter 
of local improvement but for an object in which 
all those inhabitants of the two adjacent States or 
of the world at large who may in future years be en- 
abled to visit the spot are directly interested; and 
as the health either of the physical or moral nature 
of any person has its influence on those with whom 
he comes in contact, its results will be ever widen- 
ing till we cannot set a limit to them. 
# # # 
In locating a public park a question of first im- 
portance, but one rarely given much consideration, 
is that of boundary lines, which are generally left 
to settle themselves as temporary convenience may 
dictate; and it is discovered too late that instead of 
some tract, that for its beauty of location or relation 
to the rest of the park should have been secured at 
all hazards, we have some land that at best involves 
unnecessary expense in bringing it into harmony 
with the balance. 
^ 
As to the treatment of the Park, when it comes 
to improvements there will doubtless be some dif- 
ference of opinion, and in some minds at the pres- 
ent day, there seems to be as great a dis-inclination 
to commit the designing of a reservation of this 
kind to a Landscape Architect as there used to be 
in the olden time among some classes to commit- 
ting the care of their bodily health to a regularly 
educated physician or surgeon, because perforce he 
must be allied with Satan. To be sure there are 
quacks and shysters in all professions and a Land- 
scape Gardener whose sole idea of art is to fill a 
lawn with cannas and coleus or to construct a world 
or a horse of echeverias, might in his efforts to 
decorate only succeed in desecrating the landscape; 
still that does not prove false the assertion that the 
improvement of such a park should be based on a 
design which has been carefully studied and in 
which the end is clearly seen from the beginning. 
Anything strikingly artificial in such a place as this 
must have the effect of a discordant note, but in any 
locality where crowds do gather certain precautions 
for their own safety and the preservation of the nat- 
ural features must be taken and it is therefore a 
choice of evils. 
* * 
The improvements to be made may be divided 
into two classes, — first, those intended to re.store or 
preserve the natural features of the park, or to make 
them more prominent, and second, to make the fea- 
tures safely accessible to visitors. 
In the first class I would arrange them as fol- 
lows: — Proper regulations and police protection to 
save what you now have and whatever may be done 
in the way of planting, etc. It looks to many as 
very unreasonable to be denied the privilege of cut- 
ting a walking stick, a branch of a flowering shrub, 
a bouquet of ferns and wild flowers or of chipping 
off a specimen of trap rock for a memento of a 
pleasant excursion, for they forget the old proverb 
“that many a little makes a mickle,” and that it is 
not the matter of one little souvenir, but of the tens 
and hundreds of thousands that would in the course 
of time demand the same privilege. 
^ ^ 
Next, and first in the line of manual work is the 
cleaning of the ground by the removal of the dead 
trees, stumps and other debris which now interfere 
with the new growth which is starting, and is also a 
source of danger from fires. The standing timber 
also needs inspecting and often times a little intelli- 
gent surgical treatment will start a feeble and ap- 
parently dying tree into vigorous growth again, or 
a judicious thinning out will add much to the health 
and appearance of the woodland. It is to be re- 
gretted of course that along the river gorge so large 
a proportion of the old pine growth has been re- 
moved, but whenever land is owned by private part- 
ies nothing else can be reasonably expected, for it 
is the source of the owner’s livelihood, and it must 
be made to yield its income as in any other lines of 
business. 
There is in many minds a great misunderstand- 
ing as to the true intent of Forestry as' a practical 
pursuit, and the advocates of such treatment of the 
timbered sections of the Northwest are too often 
held up to scorn by their opponents as those who 
would at once put an end to all the lumbering in- 
terests which are such an important element in the 
prosperity of our State. 
This is a great mistake, as the true theory of for- 
estry is that each and every tree shall be cutatthat 
period in its growth when it is at its highest value. 
