PARK AND CEMETERY, 
> 0 
PARK NOTES. 
! 
Roses and the south go hand in hand as it were. The com- 
mittee on flowers, plants and trees of the Park Board of 
Atlanta, Ga., have been con.sidering bids on 10,000 rose bushes 
for Grant Park. 
* *• * 
If every improvement association would, as opportunity 
offers, agitate in favpr of parks where none exists, and of their 
improvement and care where they have been established, such 
organizations will add another important .section to their nsefnl- 
ne.ss. This is sugge.sted by a discussion on parks recently held 
at -■Mken, S. C., by the Imjjrovement {society. 
* * * 
The Daughters of the American Revolution of Philadel- 
phia, and many other localities, have joined hands to preserve 
the neighborhood of Valley Forge and its historical points as a 
National Park. There is no more .suggestive spot for govern- 
ment care and protection than \’alley Forge, and it should 
receive the attention recpiested. 
Akron, O., has recently received a gift of 80 acres of land 
for park purposes, located in the southern part of the city, from 
Col. George T. Perkins. The value of the gift is stated to be 
$100,000. Some minor conditions are attached looking to 
proper protection and a strict observance of Sunday as to 
sports, etc., etc. 
^ ^ ^ ^ 
The attention of congress is being called to Griffith Park^ 
near Los Angeles, Cal., with a view to e.stahlish a national 
arboretum. The park, which was the gift to Los Angeles oi 
Mr. G. J. Griffith, contains over 1,000 acres, is well watered, 
and has such varying altitudes and soils that numberless varie- 
ties of trees and plant life can be acclimated, and an excellent 
experimental and botanical station created. 
» » vf 
Governor Stone of Penns3’lvania will make forestry" a fea- 
ture of his administration, and is in heartj' accord with the 
plans of Prof. J. T. Rothrock, the State Forestrj- Commissioner. 
Just now special attention is being given to the purchase of 
]auds suitable for State reservations, and .several thousand acres 
liave already been secured and the titles placed in the Common- 
wealth. Other mountain lands are being negotiated for, and a 
special meeting of the Fore.strv Commission will be held to con. 
firm additional purcha.ses. This idea of forest reservation is 
becoming a popular question. 
» * * 
new departure in shade tree iflanting is to be inaugurated 
this spring in Philadel])hia. Hitherto, .shade trees have been 
planted by property' holders, and, practically, neither system 
nor re.sults have been studied. Now, the city will provide the 
monev and the city forester will attend to the work. It is pro- 
posed to plant trees along Broad street from Mo\’amensing to 
Germantown avenue, and 1,400 will be provided. There wall be 
diversity enough in the .species of trees planted to settle the 
que.stion for the future as to the best kind of trees to plant along 
city streets. The trees for this initial experiment will include 
maples, oaks, planes, lindens, ginkos, tulips, poplars and elms. 
This will be a practical effort to solve the shade tree que.stion in 
regard to cit}- shade trees. 
* * * 
There was recently introduced into the senate of the 
Massachusetts legislature a petition for an act to establish a 
memorial park to Daniel Webster, and to preserve the Webster 
homestead and burial place at IMarshfield. The legislation pro- 
vides that the state shall acquire the Webster homestead 
purchase. The legislature has also been a.sked to pass an act 
“to the end that the land embracing Mt. Tom and Mt. Nono- 
tuck, in the counties of Hampden and Hamp.shire, be acquired 
liy the Commonwealth and held for the jiurposes of a public 
park ” The bill provides for the appointment of the IMt. Tom 
State Re.servation Commission of five per.son.s — two of them to 
be Hampden residents and two Hamp.shire — to take not over 
4,000 acres, and to have the powers of the ^Metropolitan Park 
Commission. 
* * » 
In connection with the propo.sed bi-centenar}’ of the cit\-of 
Detroit, Mich., an elaborate scheme of memorializing the event 
has been designed b}’ Mr. Stanford White in collaboration with 
-Augustus St. Gaudens, Frederick MacMonnies, T. W. Dewing 
and D. W. Tryon. It is to be located at the flat below the point 
of Belle Isle Park, and consists in the main of a Doric Peris- 
U’le of white marble, the principal feature of which is a great 
Doric column, the highest in the world — surrounded by groups 
of .sculpture in the water — treated in the character of the 
memorial columns of clas,sic times. The column is to be sur- 
mounted b}' a tripod, which would be a torch at night illumin- 
ated by electricitj- or natural gas. The design further contem- 
plates as a support and surrounding to the column a great basin 
flanked b\’ flights of steps, supporting colonnades, in the centre 
of which would rest the statue of Cadillac, or a group of 
sculpture embodving with the statue of Cadillac the story of 
the discoverers. Cost, fi, 000, 000. 
* * * 
The Gettysburg National Park Commi.ssion, in a recent re- 
port, .shows that, .since their appointment, they have purchased 
517. 6S acres of land at a cost of 121,657.52, Since the appoint- 
ment of the Commission they have completed 12.6 miles of 
avenues at an average cost per mile of 1(8,582.68. Two hundred 
and eleven gun carriages have been placed upon granite founda- 
tions, 363 tablets of iron and bronze for divisions, brigades, 
etc., have been placed in position, 242 ten-inch and thirteen- 
inch shells have been set upon granite posts at avenue curves. 
The cost of monuments, markers and tablets erected in the 
park by the various States, and by militar}^ organizations since 
the appointment of the Commission, has been 1130,100. The 
estimated co.st of monuments, etc., erected under similar niG 
diunis prior to the e.stablishment of the park, and tramsferred 
to the United States .since the appointment of the Commission, 
is |i, 500, 000, and a request is now made for more liberal appro- 
jiriations h\- Congress for a continuance of this work. 
* * » 
“There is a great deal of room for improvement in our 
jiarks,” said Ralph Clarkson, chairman of the organizing com- 
mittee of the IMunicipal Art .Ls-sociation of Chicago, in an 
interview in the Tribune. "To begin with, something should 
be done to rid their approaches of the obtrusive display of 
hideous signboards which abound everywhere along our boule- 
vards, and particularly around the edges of Lincoln and Wash- 
ington Parks. A great deal depends upon the first impres- 
sion which one receives in vi.siting a park. I detest the 
system of laying out parks in an artificial way. Parks should 
be somewhat wild. The use of statuary in parks is perfectly 
proper, but it should not be indiscriminate. Sculptures in 
parks should be in keeping with the surroundings, and for that 
reason allegorical or mythological figures or groups are more 
appropriate than portrait statues. The latter should be placed 
near the approaches to the parks instead of the atrocious signs 
and billboards. The ultimate object of parks should never be 
lost sight of, and they should be extended as much as po.ssible.” 
