192 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Extensive improvements are being planned for the Chicago 
parks for the coming year. Three sites for new parks have 
been purchased by the South Park Board at a cost of $283,000. 
The largest of these includes 60 acres lying between S2d and 
55th streets and Loomis street and Center avenue, and cost 
$183,000. The other two are smaller and 1 were acquired at an 
expenditure of $50,000 each. The West Park Board plans 
the construction of a new conservatory at Garfield Park to 
be the largest in the city. It will cost about $150,000. The 
total expenditures for the West Side parks for the year were 
$682,000, the total bonded indebtedness $1,260,000. 
5jC 5{C 
After three years of litigation the legality of the bond issue 
for the purchase of Central Park, Louisville, Ky., has been 
established and the park is soon to be taken over by the 
city. The bond issue of $250,000 was approved by a close 
popular vote, and suit was brought to compel the election 
commissioners to recount a part of the vote. A recent de- 
cision of the Appellate Court decides that the bonds are 
valid', and the only remaining step to be taken is for the park 
board to exchange the bonds for the property. The park is 
a beautiful wooded tract in the heart of the fashionable resi- 
dence district, and is the only park of considerable size within 
the city limits. 
* * * 
Citizens of Morgan Park, near Chicago, 111 ., have formed 
a separate park district in accordance with an act of the Legis- 
lature of that state. A special election was held last fall, and 
the Calumet Park District organized. The park district law 
was enacted for the purpose of enabling the reclamation of 
submerged river and lake lands for park purposes and giving 
the residents of any district not assessed for park or boulevard 
purposes the opportunity to organize a park district and elect a 
board of park commissioners with power to levy a tax not to 
exceed four mills for improving and maintaining parks and 
boulevards. 
* * * 
Mr. E. J. Parker, of Quincy, 111 ., tells the story of the 
park work of the Quincy Boulevard and Park Association 
in a recent issue of the Covington Courier, Covington, Ky., 
for the benefit of the park association of that city. The asso- 
ciation was incorporated in 1888, and began work with an old 
abandoned cemetery as the city’s first park. It now has an an- 
nual income of $12,300, and the city has 125 acres of parks, 
valued at $215,000. By a resolution of the City Council, the 
proceeds of the tax on dogs, one dollar per head, and amount- 
ing to about $1,300 per year, is turned over to the association. 
The association has, since it assumed the care of the city 
parks, planted several hundred thousand trees and flowering 
shrubs, using mostly native flora of Illinois and Missouri. 
* * * 
Warren H. Manning, of Boston, who is to make plans for 
the extensive beautifying of Harrisburg, Pa., recently visited 
that city and outlined before the commission the plans for 
Harrisburg’s splendid system of parkways, including the gird- 
ling of the city with a six mile driveway 200 feet wide stretch- 
ing practically from the river at Lochiel to the river at Luck- 
now. He showed in detail what was planned for the city 
and the scheme to use the State Capitol and the river front 
as the inner park system, while the parkway, a drive with a 
chain of parks, was discussed as one of the future improve- 
ments. 
City Forester William F. Gale, of Springfield, Mass., in his 
annual report recommends that a special appropriation be 
granted for apparatus for thinning out the city's trees. Atten- 
tion is also called to the fact that many trees are damaged 
by horses left standing near them and not provided with muz- 
zles, and it is suggested that trees- could be properly protected 
with wire guards. The forester states that the trees are gen- 
erally in good condition, although the work of pruning has 
been curtailed, because of the cutting down of the appropria- 
tion. The appropriation was $8,000, and the earnings of the 
department $1,231.54, making a total of $9,231.54, while the 
expenditures have been $9,242.90. 
5^4 
Representative Parker has introduced a bill in Congress 
for the termination of the present National Park Commis- 
sion, and for the formation of a new one to consist of five 
members to be appointed by the President with consent of the 
Senate, two members to be men who have served in the Con- 
federate army, and for the next ten years each appointee must 
have seen active service. The first membership to also include 
one member of each of the existing military park commissions, 
and one officer of the army. It will be the duty of this com- 
mission, should the bill pass, to submit to Congress recom- 
mendations as to the places for the establishment of National 
parks, and an estimate of the expense for establishment and 
maintenance, and upon approval of such recommendations by 
Congress, the Commission would have the power to acquire 
the necessary lands, rights of way, to superintend the opening 
and construction of roads, to ascertain and definitely mark the 
lines of battles ; they would also have the power to accept 
gifts and to allow the erection of monuments by State or 
municipal governments, military societies or others. 
* * * 
The park system of Kansas City has been constructed 
almost entirely within the last nine years. Land was first taken 
for park purposes and the work of improving it begun in 
1894. The North park district of the city has since acquired 
parks and parkways comprising 219 acres, upon which it has 
expended for original purchase and improvements, $2,157,925. 
The South park district in the same time has acquired 148 
acres, upon which it has spent $1,544,715; the West park 
district, 136 acres, involving expenditures of $635,524; the 
East park district 165 acres which, with improvements, have 
cost $28,927 — a total of 734 acres, costing, with improvements, 
$5,514,197. These parks divide themselves into three types; 
the terraces, covering portions of the bluff's that face the 
bottom lands of the Missouri river in the northern section of 
the city and along the Kansas river in the West park district; 
parks and boulevards of the usual type in the residential dis- 
trict above the river bottoms and the wild Swope park, an 
extensive rural reservation several miles southeast from the 
business center. The park board of this city was recently en- 
gaged in moving 400 elms from Gladstone boulevard for plant- 
ing on the Parade in 15th street and in other parks and boule- 
vards. The trees are twelve years old, and many of them 
from eight to ten inches in diameter. Two derricks and a 
wagon with an inclined bed constituted the moving machinery, 
one of the derricks being used for releasing the trees from 
the ground and loading them on the wagon, the other for 
placing them in the excavations prepared for them. 
NEW PARKS, IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS, 
Topeka, Kas., is to spend $10,000 on improvements • in the 
city park during the coming year, as against $5,000 for the 
past year. One of the improvements planned is a new en- 
trance gate of stone and iron. 
The city council of Trenton, N. J., has authorized a bond 
