PARK AND CEMETERY. 
151 
Albany, Mo., is taking steps toward the purchase of property 
for the purpose of a city park. 
* * * 
By the provisions of an act of the Michigan legislature the 
park board of Detroit was authorized to issue $150,000 of bonds 
for an aquarium and horticultural building in Belle Isle Park- 
The council judiciary committee has decided to submit the 
question to the people in November. 
* * * 
A movement is on foot to purchase twenty acres on Kenesaw 
mountain, Georgia, one ot the most noted of southern battle- 
fields, by the survivors of the Eighty-Fifth, Eighty-Sixth and 
One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Illinois regiments, and the 
Fifty-Second Ohio regiment, for a public park and the erection 
of a monument. 
* * * 
The public library of Scarboro, Me., which was started in a 
small way some years ago by Rev. Dr. Merrill, has recently 
received a donation of $10,000 from the trustees of the Walker 
estate for a library building, and a lady summer resident has 
offered to pay the difference of cost between brick and granite 
for the structure. 
* * * 
A tract of 200 acres ot land beautifully located in the 
suburbs of Parkersburg, W. Va., has been arranged by it* 
owner, ex-Senator Camden, for a playground for the children 
of the city. A part of the tract is well shaded and will not be 
disturbed, except that seats and tables are conveniently placed 
while the unshaded portion is arranged with flowers, paths and 
other pleasant effects. 
» » « 
Mr. Duke M Farson of Chicago has bought Buffalo Rock 
on the Illinois river, ten miles east of LaSalle, it is supposed for 
methodist camp-meeting purposes. The rock is nearly as flat 
as a table on top and contains loo acres. Buffalo Rock is rich 
in Indian lore and legend, and, being located in the center of 
the Illinois Indian territory, it shares with Starved Rock its 
historic associations. In the history of Illinois it has also 
played an important part. It was brought into prominence 
during the Black Hawk war, and has been used for many years 
as camping grounds by state troops. 
* » * 
The official life of one of the most interesting official bod'es 
Cleveland. O., has ever known will end in a few months— the 
Baard of Park Camm's ioners, which has been in existence for 
nearly seven years. During this time it has expended (r 
arranged to spend some tw'o and a half million dollars on its 
splendid park system, comprising ten parks, and if its sugges- 
tions are carried out it will have one of the largest continuous 
chains of parks in the world. Before the board was created by 
act of state legislature, Cleveland had but some 92 acres 
parks under the direction of the director of public works ; it 
now has over 1,243 ^.cres, which include some munificent gifts of 
property for pirk purposes, donated to the city under the 
influence of this respected board of public officials. 
* * X 
The fallowing is a practical suggestion for the securing of 
street trees for city embellishment. Quincy, 111 , has some very 
fine arcades of Elm trees in certain portions, but is woefully 
lacking in shade trees in others, and Mr. Dickhut, superin- 
tendent of the city's pa.k system, suggests “diat a large number 
of citizens go in together in the purchase of a large quantity of 
shade trees and then have them all planted by one man, or 
under one contract. In this way the trees could be secured at 
next to nothing, and the cost of planting would be reduced to a 
minimum. This may not be the proper time for planting trees, 
but if the matter was taken up now it could be carried to a 
successful conclusion by next spring. The effect of shade trees 
on a residence thoroughfare is not only to beautify it, but 
increase the value of property as well.” 
XXX 
In relation to the great scheme of establishing a national 
park in Minnesota, previously mentioned, a recent press dis- 
patch from Minneapolis says: “Dr. Northrop, president of the 
University of Minnesota, and also president of the proposed 
Minnesota National Park Association, has discarded as imprac- 
ticable the proposition to acquire the necessary park lands by 
purchase, and presents the following scheme: The utilization of 
800,000 acres of the Indian reservation in and about Leech and 
'Winnibigishish Lakes, with the possibility of an extension of 
the park confines north to the Canadian border at a future time. 
The Town of 'Walker is left outside the park lines, as is Deer 
River on the ea.st. Both Leech and Winnibigishish Lakes are 
included. The value of the land to-day as it stands is estimated 
at about $5,000,000. Of this one-fifth is represented by the 
land itself, $4,000,000 by the standing timber. All the land is 
government reservatfon for the Indians, and part of the public 
domain, and by congressional action can be made into a park. 
X X * 
In discussing park improvements in connection with im- 
portant changes proposed for the parks of Denver, Col, Mr. 
Reinhard Schenlze, landscape engineer of the park commission, 
makes these suggestive remarks: “The beauty of a paik is in 
its simplicity, and still in its variety. Groups of trees and 
shrubs, bodies of water and stretches of green meadow give the 
idea of greatness, and well developed specimen trees the idea 
of beauty. The groups of trees should be arranged so that you 
cannot see the whole park or garden at one glance. Just as you 
have to stroll all through a wooded glade to appreciate all its 
beauties, so it should be with a park. The point to be kept in 
mind and sought after in this work is to accomplish great results 
with small means. A bunch of hollyhocks and ribbon gra^s 
planted against a fence often gives a better effect than a large 
carpet bed. A honeysuckle growing over some old moss- 
covered rock and a bunch of water lilies in a quiet corner of a 
pond give splendid effects.” 
* * * 
Last year there appeared in these columns a note concerning 
a model, in bedding plants, of the battleship “Maine,” arranged 
in the Michigan Central Railway grounds at Ypsilanti, Mich. 
This year the gardener, Mr. John Laidlow, raised a monument 
of similar material in memory of that vessel. It is 22 feet high 
and 20 feet across the base, surmounted by an eagle 2 feet 7 
inches high standing upon a globe two feet in diameter. Below 
this is an octagonal cone 14 feet in height resting upon an orna. 
mental base, at the eastern and western extremities of which, 
upon a gab’e peak, a miniature battleship Maine is set. In 
dark red lettering near the base the words “Erected by the 
Michigan Central R. R. in Remembrance of the Maine ” are 
plainly set out. The design consumed 1,820 Alternanthera 
versicolor, 3,010 A. aurea n'na, 980 A. spathulata, 2,200 red 
A. parychoides major, 2,985 Echeveria metallica, 365 E. secunda 
glauca, 8,540 Sedum veriegatum and 400 Oxalis corniculata. 
It would be more gratifying to record that Mr. Laidlaw had 
expended the energy and ability required for this in a less 
grotesque effort of garden work. The proposed plans fer beau- 
tifying the of the Ann Arbor Stal ion Grc unds. by Mrs. Frances 
Copley Seavey, will be in maiktd ccntiast to these of Ypsilpnij. 
