373 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PARK NOTES 
Much activity is noted in Oakland, Cal., looking to the 
establishment of a system of parks in that city. 
* » * 
Preliminary work on Bradley Park, Peoria, III, a recent gift 
to that city, is well under way; the Park Board has spent nearly 
18,000 on the work thus far. 
• * * 
It is reported that the geysers in the Yellowstone Park are 
losing in force and activity, and some one predicts that fifty years 
hence there will be little left of them. 
* * * 
A project is on foot in Iowa Falls, la., to connect the many 
beautiful spots in and about the beautiful city by a park system. 
Many interesting points will be included in the scheme. 
«■ * * 
The village board of Herkimer, N. Y., is at work on the 
project of converting the old cemetery at the west end of Liberty 
street into a public park. This is an improvement long needed. 
•x- » * 
Among the items of news connected with the Philadelphia 
small parks and squares, late in October, was the opening of bids 
for some 400 trees and 80.000 bulbs. Herein lies a promise of 
renewed beauty next spring. 
* » x 
The Baltimore, Md., park board have decided that “ per- 
mits” will be required for foot ball and other field games in the 
parks. Exercised with liberal caution this may be a wise con- 
servatism, but therein “ is the rub.” 
* * » 
According to the Popular Science News there are in F ranee 
twenty-twer botanical gardens; in Germany, thirty-five; in Great 
Britain and Ireland, eleven; in the Indian empire, nine; in Italy, 
twenty-two; in Russia, fourteen, while there are but five public 
botanical gardens in the whole of the United States. 
XXX 
In a suit of the Louisville Park commissioners against that 
city to secure a tax levy made for the benefit of the parks for the 
years 1894-95, and which was withheld by the city. Judge Field 
has rendered a decision in favor of the commissioners which 
declared that the levy could not be diverted from the park to 
other purposes. 
• X * 
Philadelphia is embarking in an extensive scheme of city 
park improvement, outlined by City Forester Lewis. Old trees 
are to be removed and new' trees planted on a well thought out 
plan and not indiscriminately as heretofore. A large order for 
trees and bulbs has already been placed and it is probable that 
another will be given out later in the season. 
X * * 
In our colder latitudes the object of the parks to secure 
recreation and pleasure to the people, does not fail by reason of 
winter rigors. It is now being recognized that winter sports and 
pastimes should be provided for in our public parks, and gener- 
ally improvements are being effected to provide both the acces- 
sories and the comfort for the due enjoyment of the winter 
season. 
X X * 
Alexander Hamilton Post, No. 182, G. A. R., is arranging to 
set out thirteen elm saplings in Bronx Park, New York, next 
Arbor Day. They will be planted in the form of a star with 
plenty of room to spread and grow. This is to commemorate 
Alexander Hamilton as well as the veterans of the post. All but 
two of the thirteen trees originally planted by Hamilton in St, 
Nicholas Terrace, near 143rd street. New York, have died. 
Neglect in their earlier years and want of room have prevented 
their flourishing. 
* X * 
A very interesting feature of primary education in Russia, 
says Nature, “ is the establishment and rapid development of 
small farms, orchards and kitchen gardens in connection with 
many primary schools, especially in the villages. The land for 
such model gardens or farms on a small scale was mostly obtained 
through free grants from the village communes, and occasionally 
from the neighboring landlords, while the expenses are covered 
by very small money grants from the country and district coun- 
cils. In the province of Ekaterinoslav, south Russia, almost 
every school has not only an orchard and kitchen garden for the 
use of the school- master, but that nearly one-half of the schools 
in the province have small model kitchen gardens, orchards, tree 
plantations, or farms, at which gardening, sylviculture and seri- 
culture are regularly taught. This province being mostly tree- 
less, special attention is given to tree plantations, and next to 
silkworm culture . The aggregate area of the 227 school farms 
or gardens attains 283 acres, and they contained, in 1895, 111,000 
fruit trees and 283,300 planted forest trees, nearly 14,000 of the 
former and 42,000 of the latter having been distributed free 
among the pupils during the same year. The money grants for 
these 227 gardens were very small, i. e., a little over $1600. 
Besides, over a thousand beehives are kept, partly by the school- 
master and partly by the children; and some schools had vine- 
yards in connection with them. This movement has widely 
spread over different provinces of central Russia, where the cul- 
ture of cereals dominates at the school farms, while in Caucassia 
attention is specially given to the silkworm culture and the cul- 
ture of the vine. Something might be learned from the sug- 
gestions conveyed in the above. 
X X » 
The Fairmount park commissioners, Philadelphia, are find- 
ing it necessary to issue more stringent rules, in connection with 
penalties, to prevent injury to the trees, shrubs and ferns by the 
thoughtless. The beautiful ferns and fall foliage has an irresis- 
tible attraction to depredations of this kind, and among the chief 
offenders appear to be the cyclists, who, to decorate their wheels, 
pluck and uproot in every direction, regardless of regulations. 
It is the aggregate of such petty delinquencies that makes the 
offense a serious one, and necessitates positive action by the 
authorities. No person will probably be allowed to carry any 
foliage, ferns or flowers of any kinds, known to grow in the park, 
within its limits. This would seem arbitrary and offensive, and 
the commissioners should seek some more equitable deterrent. 
» * X 
Fall flower shows in prominent parks are becoming quite a 
feature, and a good one, of park management. Such exhibi- 
tions tend not only to keep up an interest in park matters, but 
affords an opportunity of carrying the usefulness of the park 
later into the inclement season of our northern latitudes. Then 
the chrysanthemum is a plant of such beauty and variety, that 
in itself it is an atttraction, and its cultivation in our parks and 
their greenhouses, readily lends itself to park details and makes 
a delightful closing of the year’s work. 
X X » 
The new pavilion, Chicago, has been dedicated. The new 
structure is of stone and pressed brick and is two stories high, 
the outside walls of the lower floor and foundation being com- 
posed principally of granite bowlders. The roof is gabled and 
constructed of French tiling. One of the architectural features 
of the building is an arrangement of “ four-fold doors ’* which 
answer the purpose of walls in the winter. In warm weather 
they will be removed and the structure thus converted into a 
pavilion. Rooms have been set apart for skaters, and provision 
will be made for cyclers. 
