398 
PARK AND CE/AETERY. 
Parks, 
The following extract from a paper by Mr. J. F. 
Foster, C. E., superintendent of South Park, Chi- 
cago, read before the Western Society of Engi- 
neers, contains some pointed suggestions: 
"The location or selection of grounds for park 
purposes is, unfortunately, i arely a matter of the 
adatability of the site,but is more apt to be determined 
by the consideration of the effect it will have upon the 
real estate in this or that location, or, as frequently 
happens, the land is good for nothing else; therefore it 
will do for a park. Such being the case, the con- 
verting of the swamp, rocks or sand plane, as the 
sight is apt to be, into a park, is not only expen- 
sive, but usually attended with unsatisfactory re- 
sults on account of the want of funds to do the right 
thing. The designer of a park is asked to take one 
of these usually unpromising pieces of ground (at 
least, so they have been in our locality,) and sub- 
mit a plan for its development into the finest park 
in the country, for you know that is what every 
community expects its park to be. He must empha- 
size in his design any natural feature connected 
with the site which it is desirable to retain, and 
must obliterate all undesirable features. He must 
ascertain what trees and shrubs can be best depended 
upon to make thrifty and permanent growth in the 
location selected, and what must be done to the earth 
to make it suitable for plantation. Then he must 
study the requirements of the people by whom the 
park is to be used and provide for their absolute 
wants, and at the same time perhaps open to them 
unknown pleasures, and teach them to enjoy nature 
in the quiet way which affords the greatest pleasure. 
By providing for the wants of the people of the lo- 
cality I don’t want to be understood as saying that 
if he finds a number who are interested in prize 
fighting, or cock fighting, that places shall be pro- 
vided for such things; on the contrary, parks gen- 
erally are too much devoted to exhibitions of vari- 
ous kinds, such as match games of ball and cricket, 
and races of various kinds, the competitors being 
semi- professionals or club organizations. A park is 
no place for such contests. The playing of games 
should be confined to those who indulge therein 
simply for recreation, not as an exhibition of skill. 
With such restrictions the playing of games would 
be confined largely to school children who would be 
just as well satisfied with any stretch of lawn for 
their game as with a place especially prepared for 
it. The same should apply to the riders of bicy- 
cles; no racing should be permitted, but ample pro- 
vision made for the full enjoyment of the parks by 
those who visit them on wheels, such as broad drives, 
and, where required, cycle paths, also places where 
the wheels can be safely left while the owner is 
otherwise enjoying himself; but the construction 
of racing tracks seems to me to be diverting the uses 
from the high grade of reposeful recreation which is 
primarily its object to that feverish excitement which 
may be found at the side of the tracks of Roby or 
Hawthorne. It seems to me that all such things 
should be avoided, and that a board of commission- 
ers err when they think that they must respond to 
demands made upon them to furnish a place for 
every class of amusement. It should be borne in 
mind that usually those making the demand are so 
interested in the accomplishment of their object that 
they have little or no thought to give to the effect a 
compliance with their wishes would have upon the 
enjoyment of the park by all others who visit it. 
Frequently the park trustees are so interested in 
pleasing an insistent class that they forget the great 
primal object of the park, which is not, it seems to 
me, to enter into free competition with every race 
track, ball park, merry-go-round, etc., in the local- 
ity. But to return to the designer and his task: 
He, of course, must provide for boating, for driv- 
ing, for riding, for walking and wheeling, to what 
extent for each he can only determine after care- 
fully studying the situation and estimating to the 
best of his ability the probable needs when the 
population of the territory for which the park is to 
be the recreation ground has reached its maximum. 
These wants he designs his park to meet, mingling 
together as best he can the natural and necessary in 
his plan, and the nearer he can come to satisfying 
the desire of all who visit the park to behold the 
beautiful work of nature, and at the same time make 
it accessible in all parts with little or no obtrusiveness 
of walks, roads, bridges, buildings, etc., the more 
nearly will his plan be a success. 
Trees Interfering With Roads. 
Some little time ago in an article on landscape 
work which appeared in Park and Cemetery was 
the statement “The direction of roads and carriage 
drives frequently has to be changed in order to 
prevent the destruction of trees,” or words to that 
effect. Often this is too true. But the question 
arises whether it i's advisable to sacrifice, the sym- 
metrical and true curves of a road which is pre- 
sumably to last for all time or remove a tree, 
which at the best has only a fleeting existence, and 
can be replaced in the course of a few years and its 
removal be unnoticed. In cemetery work more 
particularly is the carriage way of greater impor- 
tance, for when the sections on either side have 
their silent tenants, the road cannot be changed. 
