PARK AND CEMETERY 
159 
jZ? ParK Notes jZ7 
The city of New York has over eighty parks, ranging in 
size from one acre to over 1,700 acres. The largest is Pelham 
Bay Park, near City Island, with 1,756 acres. The others 
are: Van Cortlandt Park, with 1,132 acres; Central Park, 
843 acres ; Bronx Park,' 660 acres, and Prospect Park, Brook- 
lyn, 516 acres, besides other smaller parks and breathing 
spots, making a total of nearly 7,000 acres. 
* * * 
The Wisconsin Inter-State Park Commission has acquired 
eleven of the fourteen holdings of land necessary for the 
Wisconsin-Minnesota Inter-State Park, in the Dalles of the 
St. Croix. The appropriation for the purpose was $6,500, and 
the land acquired has cost from $3 to $7 an acre. It is pro- 
posed by the Wisconsin Commission to keep the land in its 
natural state as far as possible. Only rustic buildings will be 
erected. There will be roads built, and the board may em- 
ploy a landscape architect to lay out the park. 
* * * 
Superintendent Stegall, of the parks of Chattanooga, Tenn., 
is making preparations for the improvement of Sam Houston 
Park, soon to be laid out in that city. The park is a small 
tract having diagonal walks running from the corners to a 
circular plot in the center reserved for shrubbery and orna- 
mental planting. The paths are to be made of chert, and will 
be flanked with trees, chiefly horse chestnuts, poplars and 
water oaks. Several thousand cuttings have been made for 
planting the park. 
Hs * * 
The Park Board of Cedar Rapids, la., composed of Messrs. 
Krebs, Haskell and Redmond, has been praised by the local 
press for efficient work during the past season. Important 
preliminary construction work has been done at Ellis Park. 
At Beaver Park a large additional tract has been cleared, 
and a bear pit constructed. The floods in the early spring 
prevented much work in Riverside Park, but the Commis- 
sion expects to make extensive improvements there next 
season. 
* * * 
Three states, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, have united 
in the effort to create a national park in the Greenhorn moun- 
tains, thirty miles from Pueblo, Col. A bill, having strong 
political support, is to be presented at the next session of 
Congress in both houses. C. S. Harrison, of York, Neb., is 
promoting the movement in that state and in Kansas. The 
beauty of the park lies mainly in the wonderful forests, con- 
taining trees of innumerable variety; in the ruggedness of 
the canyons and in the wonderful natural parks and “mesas.” 
In this vicinity also is the great Greenhorn peak, rising 14,000 
feet, and higher than any in the Yellowstone Park. 
* * * 
An interesting feature of the park at York, Neb., is a plant- 
ing of Rocky Mountain trees under the care of C. S. Har- 
rison, of that city, president of the Nebraska Park and For- 
est Association. The collection numbers 150 trees, and in- 
cludes specimens of most of the twelve kinds of evergreens 
growing on the eastern slope in Colorado. The park contains 
ten acres of diversified land, and a northern slope sheltered 
from the sun has been chosen for the Rocky Mountain col- 
lection. Four kinds of Columbines, which grow in the Rockies, 
are to be planted, in addition to cacti, Spanish bayonet, Rubus 
deliciosus, and mountain spiraeas. The trees will all be 
labeled and the tract made as attractive as possible. 
The Park Board of Peoria, 111 ., has completed final ar- 
rangements for the construction of the proposed pleasure 
drive along the river bluff to Prospect Heights. Land has been 
granted for this purpose by the villages of Averyville and 
Peoria Heights, and the Board has voted to commence work 
at once on the roadway. This city is making a determined 
fight against the billboard nuisance. An ordinance is now be- 
ing prepared for introduction in the City Council, repealing 
the present law, and taking radical measures toward the 
abolition of the billboard. 
* >'fi * 
The first Park Commission of Lowell, Mass., came into 
office May 1, 1903, and the department has been thoroughly 
reorganized, with a view to eliminating politics from its 
management. The appropriation for the year was $10,000, as 
against $17,000 for 1902, but considerable work of improve- 
ment has been accomplished, although the new board found 
only $6,827.64 available when they assumed control. The 
greatest improvement has been made in the South Common, 
the oldest of the city’s breathing places. A wall has been 
cut within the line of trees bordering the park, and will prob- 
ably be extended around the entire tract. A movement is on 
foot to have the city trees placed under the control of the 
Park Commission. 
;j< sjs 
Ottawa, Ont., has 19 parks and playgrounds, the largest of 
them being Rockliffe Park, a natural arboretum 89 acres in 
extent. It is about a mile outside the city proper, on the 
bank of the Ottawa river, which it overlooks from a height 
of 80 or 90 feet. Its topography is of a varied and striking 
character, hill and vale and rolling meadow combining to 
form one of the most charming wooded retreats in the prov- 
ince. Clumps of cedar mingle with the groups of stately 
pine, some of the latter attaining massive proportions. The 
Ottawa Improvement Commission and the Ottawa Horti- 
cultural Society have been instrumental in promoting the 
work of park development. Luke Williams is superintend- 
ent of the city parks. 
AMONG THE LANDSCAPE GARDENERS, 
W. W. Parce, of Denver, Col., has been awarded the prize 
of $150 offered by the University of Colorado for the best 
plan for the improvement of the university grounds. Mr. 
Farce’s plan includes, among other features, a large open-air 
amphitheater placed in natural surroundings on the campus. 
The center of the grounds will be taken up by a large 
quadrangle, around which will be grouped the buildings. This 
idea has been carried out in recent years when new buildings 
have been erected, and the quadrangle is now clearly defined. 
The plans include an outdoor gymnasium and an athletic 
field for the women students. 
Mason L. Brown, of Detroit, Mich., has been engaged to 
furnish plans for the improvement of the new addition to 
Oak Grove Cemetery, Hillsdale, Mich. Attention will be 
paid to following the natural irregularities of the surface 
in the matter of grades, paths and driveways, instead of fol- 
lowing the obsolete rectangular system. 
The plans of Nelson Brothers, of Chicago, which have 
been adopted for the improvement of the new 190 acre cem- 
etery at Des Moines, la., call for the expenditure of $40,000 
in beautifying 60 acres of the tract. Of this sum $15,000 
will be expended in the purchase of trees and ornamental 
shrubbery, and the balance will be expended in grading, grav- 
eling, building a chapel and receiving vault and otherwise 
beautifying the grounds. The planting plan provides for the 
use of 7,000 trees, 12,000 shrubs and 3,000 evergreens. 
