PARK AND CEMETERY, 
193 
PARK NOTES. 
The department of public works at Pittsburg are about to 
let contracts for work to the amount of some ^75,000 in High- 
land and Schenley parks. This with the planting of some 
18,000 trees in its parks shows material interest in park affairs 
about the Smoky City. 
■ 5 }? ♦ 
Mr. Geo. L. Mesker has offered to donate forty acres of 
-laud for a public park for Evansville, Ind., provided that the 
city shall purchase from owners of adjoining property enough 
ground to create a park of sufficient capacity for the city’s 
needs in the present and future. 
* * * 
By the sale of property devised under the will of the late 
Judge'Peterson, Charleston, 111 ., secures |6, 500 for park pur- 
poses. .V like amount belongs to Newton, and Matoon receives 
twenty acres of land and $ 2 , 500 . These Illinois towns are for- 
tunate in being the recipients of a wise beneficence. 
* » » 
The Finance Committee of the Board of Aldermen of Buf- 
falo, N. Y., have voted to issue $ 20,000 in bonds for the pur- 
pose of improving the grounds and roads in the vicinity of the 
new Albright Art Gallery. It was also voted to favor the issu- 
ance of $ 6,000 worth of bonds to be used on the surroundings 
of the New York State buildi g, which will become the proper- 
ty of the Buffalo Historical society after the Pan-American Ex- 
position is over. 
* » * 
In connection with tree planting in the avenues of St. 
Paul, Minn., which is now under the care of the park commis- 
sioners, properties thus improved the past season were assessed 
to the amount of 1982.51, which covered the planting of 235 
trees. The assessments for cutung the grass along street boule- 
vards, which covered a total frontage of 52,511 feet, were 
J904.37. The expense to the property owner ranged between 
one and two cents per front foot. 
* * * 
Glen’s Falls, N. Y., has been trcfiled to a ;urf rise in con- 
nection with its park efforts. The desirability cf a park had 
materialized to the point of naming a day for a public voting 
on the question of purchasing a certain site, when Mr. Henry 
Crandall felt it incumbent upon him to inform the trustees of 
the village that in his will made some years ago he had provid- 
ed to bequeath certain property to the village for a public 
park, and that he had no intention of revoking it. The prop- 
erty is centrally located and highly appropriate Er the purpose. 
* * * 
W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., has purchased the 3,000 acre 
Mountainside Farm, at Rahway and Ramsey’s, N. J., the prop- 
erty of the late Theodore A. Havemeyer. He has also bought 
large tracts of land adjoining this farm in Passaic and Bergen 
counties. It is stated that on this large estate Mr. Vanderbilt 
will establish a game preserve in connection with a country 
home. The farm itself stretches from ridge to ridge of the 
mountains through which the Ramapo river flow's. A stone 
fence surrounds the farm proper which is said to have cost Mr. 
Havemeyer $85,000. ^ ^ ^ 
According to the superintendent of ihe Cincinnati parks, 
the elm borer bas be n decimating the elms in the parks under 
his care and he will ask the park department for 200 new 
European elms. He proposes to des'roy all the remaining in- 
fected trees in order to kill the insects. Speaking of the eight 
hour day in relation to its effect on the work of mowing in the 
parks he says; “With an eight hour system we cannot get 
over the vast acreage as it would ordinarily be done, and in 
stead of a day’s mowing being about two acres, there is now 
only about an acre a day done by each man.’’ 
* * iS 
Speculation is active in Watertown, N. Y. , on the subject 
of the park now in course of developm nt under the supervision 
of Mr. John C. Olmsted, of Boston. Some two hundred men 
are at work and it is expected that the Boston contractors will 
have the approaches, entrances and considerable drivew ay cem- 
pleted before winter. Plans for the administration buildings 
are finished, and this includes superintendent’s house, stables, 
conservatories, etc.; a great deal of ground has also been pre- 
pared for planting. While all this work is progressing, the 
identity of the donors of the park is unknown to the public. It 
is rumored that the Flower family is inters sted in the project. 
« * * 
A meeting of citizens of Johnstown, Pa., was recently held 
for the purpose of formi..g the Johnstown Centennial Tree 
Planting association. The object is to commemorate the cen- 
tennial anniversary of the founding of Johnstown by planting 
memoiial shade trees in and ab'-ut the public parks and prop- 
erty of the cit)', as well as before private residences, and to en- 
courage the systematic planting of trees and provitling for their 
intelligent care. Since the flood there has been a lack of shade 
trees in Johnstown, although much has been done in that direc- 
tion. The park commi-siou and other public bodies promise 
hearty co-operation. 
* * * 
Captain Frank West, acting superintendent of ihe Sequoia 
and General Grant national parks in California, has submitted 
his annual report. The first of these parks contains from 1,600 
to 3,000 of the mammoth sequoia trees for which California is 
noted. The park itself is on a high table land from 6,300 to 
7,500 feet in altitude and commands a view of some of the most 
magnificent mountain scenery in the Rockies. He recom- 
mends the extension of the park boundaries to take in a portion 
of this mountain tract, eastward to Mount Whitney and the 
main Sierra divide and northward to take in the King’s river 
canyon.. This section, he says, exceeds in beauty and grandei r 
anything to be found in Switzerland and is a part of the public 
domain unfitted for agriculture, but of importance as a game 
preserve and to conserve the water supply on which the im- 
mense citrus fruit interests of Tulare county depend. The Gen- 
eral Grant park is only two miles square and is in very bad 
condition, on account of fallen timber and rubbish. It contains 
over 125 large sequoias, including the famous General Grant 
tree, and a little work would make it a marvelously beautiful 
spot. 
* * * 
At the Sixth Annual Convention of the Minnesota Feder- 
ation of Women’s Clubs, held at Duluth early this month, con- 
siderabF attention w’as given lo the subject of forestry and the 
proposed National Park in Northern Minnesota. Strong argu- 
ments were made by the speakers to prove the value of both 
subjects from the economic standpoint, and sentiment was kept 
well in the background. The Duluth people are more or less 
opposed to the park project, and w'ere well represented in op- 
position at the meetings. It is unfortunate for their side of the 
question that their most powerful arguments involve too much 
of what may be termed “business aggressiveness” in the lumber 
interests of that city. Mrs. Alvah Eastman, of St. Cloud, who 
reported for the Town and Village Improvement committee, 
said that: “Improvement seems to depend not on the size of 
the town or the working club, but on the enthu.siasni of the 
workers A summary of the work was full of valuable sugges- 
tions and demonstrated that women were not slow to undertake 
municipal hou.sekeeping with good results. As a suggestion for 
special work the improvement of country highways was recom- 
mended.” 
