PARK AND CEMETERY. 
71 
PARK NOTES. 
The effort of the New York World to secure the creation of 
a small park in the district of Jersey- City, known as “Little 
Itah',” which was warmly endorsed by the Woman’s Club has 
been crowned with success. The Board of Finance has appro- 
priated $10,000 for the preliminary work. 
» * »■ 
The Forestry Commission of Michigan is planning a cam- 
paign for the preservation of the forests of the state. The presi- 
dent of the commission has entered into correspondence with 
the Michigan Women’s clubs with a view to securing their co- 
operation in the movement. 
* * * 
The women of Lyons, Neb., have resolved to provide a park 
for the town, that will be a credit to the people. A public spir- 
ited firm, Lyons Bros., has donated a four acre island, immedi- 
ately west, for the purpo.se and enough funds have been raised 
to begin the improvement. 
* * * 
The ladies of LaSalle, 111 ., have formed a Park Improve- 
ment Association, with the object of beautifying the parks and 
public places of the city. They hope to complete a sj'stem of 
parks, for which purpose they are soliciting funds from private 
sources and the mayor has suggested to the board of aldermen 
to provide an appropriation to help the cause. 
» * * 
There is a law in Indiana that encourages tree planting in 
that it practically exempts from taxation every acre of land 
upon which 170 trees are standing. The law is popular and has 
been availed of by many. A description of the land must be 
filed with the county auditor for record and an examination 
must be made by him before appraisal. No horses, cattle, 
sheep or goats may be pastured until the trees are 4 inches in 
diameter. The benefits of the law cannot be claimed until the 
trees are three years old. 
* • * 
The number of dead trees in the city of Savannah , Ga. , is ver}- 
large this year, probably greater than ever before. It is attrib- 
uted to various causes, storms, the effect of the cold weather of 
February 1899, the paving of the city streets and old age, some 
of the trees being very old. This all suggests that every city of 
importance should appoint a city forester, whose knowledge of 
the character and needs of tree life, would be constantly on the 
alert to keep the city trees in good condition and provide also 
for the future. 
* * * 
The house committee on Indian Affairs, Washington, on 
April 26, directed a favorable report on the bill creating a com- 
mission to consider the establishment of a National reserve or 
park of the Leech lake, Winnebago and Cass Lake reservations 
in Minnesota, comprising about 830,000 acres. The commis- 
sion was fixed at three members from each branch of congress 
and an appropriation of #5,000 was allowed. The women dele- 
gates from Minnesota deserve congratulations on the intelligent 
and forceful way in which they have helped the cause at the 
Capitol. 
* * * 
The Rural Improvement Association of Keene, N. H., has 
been very active in the endeavor to pre.serve shade trees from 
the ravages of in.sect enemies and other troubles, with very 
marked success. Another matter undertaken by the associa- 
tion has been the tagging of trees on the highways to legally 
protect them from injury or destruction. The trees are marked 
by brass washers or labels procured from the state and the work 
is done by the president of the association acting as the agent of 
the board of aldermen in whom the authority to tag the trees 
and make a record of the same is vested b}- law. 
» » * 
At last the memory of Nanc}' Hanks Lincoln, the mother 
of the immortal president of the United States, is to be honored 
by a monument and a park of 16 acres surrounding her burial 
place. This is in Spencer county, Ind., near Lincoln City. The 
monument is to be erected as a donation by the contractor 
for the new Lincoln monument, Springfield, 111 ., from stone 
taken from the old Lincoln monument in that city, and a gift of 
#1,000 from a source not publicly divulged has secured the pur- 
chase of the land. It will be improved and beautified and will 
eventually become an attractive spot for the legions of admir- 
ers of the great American. 
* » ■» 
The Board of Estimates of Baltimore are exacting a fee of 
25 cents for every permit granted to residents for planting shade 
trees in front of the houses, the board having obtained this 
power by an amendment to the charter pa-,ssed by the last legis- 
lature. Baltimore has been passing through quite a tempest in 
connection with its park affairs, the consequence of political ii;- 
trusion upon such matters, and surely this last effort to raise in- 
come will bring more discredit upon shortsighted officialdom. 
The excuse is that it costs money to said inspectors to superin- 
tend operations. What if it does, .so that the cit}- is benefited; 
and surely the planting of an appropriate shade tree is worth to 
the city many times 25 cents. Such a narrow policy deserves 
condemnation and it is to be hoped that the board may be 
brought to its senses. A prohibitive tax on citv improvement 
and progress is a move in decidedly the wrong direction. 
» * * 
In discussing the proposed location of vSt. Gaudens' eques- 
trian statue of General Sherman at the foot of the Mall in Cen- 
tral park. New York City, Mr. Samuel Parsons, Jr., draws at- 
tention to the beautiful views from that point, perhaps the fin- 
est park effects to be found in the world. He asks in the New 
York Posl whether an equestrian statue at the point suggested 
will not obstruct, dwarf, and even destroy the balance and pro- 
portion of the perspective as seen in three different ways from 
this point, and, above all, whether the site at the foot of the 
Mall, with its widely expanded area for subordinate groups and 
architectural adornments, is not in all direction.s — as you ap- 
proach it from Fifty-ninth street as well as when you look away 
from it — too essentially rural, too full of rustic, changing inci- 
dents of broken land, of swelling knolls, and masses of word- 
land to admit of the interjection of the necessarily alien and in- 
flexible treatment of a colossal equestrian statue and its sur- 
roundings. He further says: It may be set down as sure that 
to make a mistake in placing so dominating an object as the 
Sherman equestrian statue at the foot of the Mall, would have 
most disastrous and far-reaching effects on perhaps as fine an 
exhibition of the highest skill of park-making as can be found 
in the world, and which, in its way, is more valuable to a larger 
number of citizens than even the greatest of all statues. But 
the question is, as all lovers of Central park have a right to ask 
whether there are not other suitable sites in New York, such as 
the plaza at the corners of Central park. Long Acre .Square and 
the foot of West Seventy-.second street, which would not involve 
the obstruction or obliteration of the one key-point of outlook 
from which can be seen to advantage some of the most skill- 
fully and boldly designed park views in the world, whose loss 
or even injury, it should be evident, must be irreparable.’’ 
