230 
PARK AND CC/nCTCRV 
PARK NOTES. 
The Board of Commissioners of South Park, Chicago, last 
month ordered the purchase of 6c,ooo trees and shrubs, at a cost 
of $4,100. 
x- * * 
The Fairmount Park Commission, Philadelphia, awarded 
the contract for lighting the park by electricity at the rate of 
1 10 50 per light per month, the lamps to burn all night, or un 
til sunrise. 
* * 
By the will of the late Elsie Merritt the village of Medina, 
N. Y., is to have a free drinking fountain “for man, bird, and 
beast,” and also a liberty pole from which the national flag shall 
float on holidays. Most of our villages offer many like opportu- 
nities to the public spirited. 
* * * 
If a bill making a state park of the Stony Point battle 
ground, on the Hudson, becomes a law and the park established, 
it is reported that the Tuxedo Park association will build a grand 
boulevard between the two places which will give a beautiful 
drive through the mountains. 
* * x 
Savannah, Ga., is making another stride in the march of 
progress. She has done much of late years in the way of pub- 
lic work, and she is now energetically pushing the work of perma- 
nent improvements of her park system, giving special atten- 
tion to the newly acquired Colonial Park. 
* * * 
The Commissioners of the Victoria Park, — the Canadian 
Niagara Falls Park,— in their forthcoming report to the Ontario 
legislature will review its general history from 1885 down to the 
present. The report will be illustrated with many views of the 
several properties embraced , together with maps of the same. 
* * * 
The Adirondack state park, New York, is to be increased 
by the addition of 75,000 acres, for which $600,000, or $8.00 an 
acre, will be paid. The Empire state will be the gainer in the 
long run by this investment. Happily the acquisition of this 
naturally beautiful domain has been accomplished before its 
naturalness has departed. 
* * ,. 
The will of Robert W. Ryerss, the philanthropist, late Pres- 
ident of the Pennsylvania Society for the prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals, who died on February 16th at his country residence, 
besides many charitable bequests, leaves to the city of Philadel- 
phia. after the death of his wife, that part of his farm near Fox 
Chase, with his country seat, Burholme, for a public park; to be 
known as Burholme Park. 
* * ^ 
The annual appropriation for 1896 by the city of Cambridge, 
Mass , for its new park system is $303,413. It is estimated that 
the complete system will cost $2,000,000. A playground and 
sporting field of twelve acres will be finished this year and dedi- 
cated to public uses. This field is in a section of the city al- 
ready densely populated, Another reservation of two acres will 
be completed this year and will be devoted entirely to the uses 
of small children as an out- door nursery. 
* * 
* 
The annual report on the Grant Monument, Riverside 
Park, New York, shows total subscriptions amounting to $515,- 
931.91, and disbursements of 1296,729 36. The president of the 
association. General Porter said: The funds on hand will be 
just sufficient to complete the monument. The entire granite 
work will be finished in June next. The marble lining in the 
main structure and crypt, the stairways, interior decorations, 
carving and the s.ircophagus, will be completed in about a year, 
and, if no extraordinary unforseen delays occur, the structure 
will be entirely finished and ready to receive the remains of Gen. 
Grant, and to be dedicated upon the anniversary of his birth, 
April 27th. 1897. 
-X if » 
In 1894, an amendment to the park act was presumed to 
invest the park commissioners of Rochester, N, Y., with author- 
ity over shade trees in the streets, parks, squares and avenues of 
the city authorizing them to remove such trees whenever requir- 
ed for their protection or for public convenience and comfort. 
In attempting to carry this out they struck a snag, two property 
owners obtaining injunctions restrcining them, and in an ex- 
haustive opinion Judge Yeoman held that the city had no right 
to remove the trees in question. The city cannot arbitraiily cut 
down the trees upon its public streets except in cases where it is 
the owner of the fee. Another side of the question in Rochester 
is, that the Park Commissioners have been trying to preserve a 
fine old elm by securing enough land about it to form a small 
public park. The owners of the land upon which it stands have 
agreed to donate land to the amount of $500 toward the pro- 
ject. 
The superintendent of the Niagara State Reservation has 
asked for $45,000 for work in the Niagara Falls Park for the en- 
suing year, to include grading, planting, elevators, bridges 
and for an investigation and report upon the operations that 
threaten to impair the grandeur of the falls. Since the estab- 
lishment of the reservation in 1885 the expenditures for perma- 
nent improvement have amounted to |i 10.000, but considera- 
ble work is yet needed. It is proposed to construct an elevator 
at the Cave of the Winds, at which a small fee shall be charged. 
The Niagara Falls Park is practically free to visitors. During- 
the years 1885, 1886, it was maintained from receipts from the 
Inclined Railway, rentals from buildings and sale of old materi- 
als, and no appropriations were made. Since that date there 
has been appropriated $200,000 for care and maintenance, 
while the receipts turned into the state treasury have been over 
$71,000. Some 500,000 people have vnited the Reservation 
each year. Since 1885 there has been saved to the visiting pub- 
lic in tolls more than the price paid for the grounds and their 
cost of maintenance. 
* X •» 
The Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence International 
Park, which was discussed last year by both Canadian and 
American authorities seems certain of becoming a fact. A 
meeting was held in Ottawa, Canada, last month by official rep- 
resentatives of both countries, which included on the Canadian 
side two government officials, in which intense interest in the 
project was manifested. This conference resulted in an agree- 
ment to make the opening and closure laws of both countries 
uniform, the closed season to extend from January ist to June 
9th. Netting is to be totally prohibited on both sides of the 
river. The policing of the river is to be uniform, the guards of 
both sides co operating m all waters of the river. The territory 
covered by the agreement extends from Ogdensburgh on the 
American side and Prescott on the Canadian side to points four 
miles above Cape Vincent and Kingston. The Canadian gov- 
ernment is to set aside certain islands for public parks, where 
those who do not own property on the river can pitch their 
camps. Similar parks are to be established on the American 
side. The government of the park is to be vested in an inter- 
national commission, the commissioners named on the part of 
New York State being Elon R Brown, Henry R. Heath and 
President Meade of the Forest Commission. 
