296 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
and maintain dams, construct walls and banks and 
beautify and park such banks and areas as may be 
required. The act also gives the commission power to 
issue bonds and otherwise defines its powers and 
duties. The act immediately became law and was 
signed by the Governor on April 26. 
AGENCIES PROMOT- The rapidly increasing interest 
ING IMPROVEMENT jj., cause of outdoor improve- 
ment, as it relates to both city and country condi- 
tions, can be appreciated more widely by noting the 
various and important agencies now actively engaged 
in its promotion. Besides the American Park and 
(dutdoor Art Association and the American League for 
Civic Improvement, with both of which our readers 
are perhaps more familiar, the work of the Fairmount 
Park Art Association, the Appalachian Mountain 
Club, the Trustees of Public Reservations of Massa- 
chusetts and the American Scenic and Historic Preser- 
vation Society with its Woman’s Auxiliary, of New 
York, have each been so active in their several lines of 
endeavor that the results of their work have invested 
them with a national importance. The League for So- 
cial Service, with headquarters in New York City, in 
the value and practical suggestiveness of its educa- 
tional propaganda, which cover the country, exercises 
a most valuable and far-reaching influence in the gen- 
eral scheme of improvement. To these agencies must 
be added the City Parks Association of Philadelphia, 
which is engaged in a magnificent project for that 
city's park system, the numerous park commissions 
throughout the country, and the art commissions of 
the larger cities. Another significant influence and a 
vastly consequential one is that of the architects, and 
these through their organizations, such as the Ameri- 
can Institute of Architects, the Architectural League 
of America, and local architectural leagues, are dis- 
playing an effective activity in the work, especially in 
civic betterment. And added to these larger forces 
we must note the great number of village and other 
improvement associations, the horticultural societies, 
the farmers’ institutes, and many other minor clubs, 
all of which are, with more or less zeal, seeking to 
understand and then to take part in our great national 
movement of improving and preserving our surround- 
ings. .A^nd it would vastly help the cause if the smaller 
bodies could be led to place themselves in business re- 
lationship with the larger associations, in order to 
secure the benefits of their wider experience and 
knowledge of the requirements of the work, all of 
which could be obtained for little more than the asking. 
NE'W YORK TREE PLANTING RULES. 
The following rules and regulations governing 
the planting of trees in Manhattan have been adopted 
by the Board of Park Commissioners : 
1. No shade or ornamental tree or shrub shall be planted 
in any of the streets, avenues, or public thoroughfares of the 
City of New York, until such tree or shrub shall have been 
first inspected and approved by a duly appointed employe 
or expert of the department and a permit granted therefor. 
2. No hole or excavation shall be prepared for the planting 
of any tree or shrub unless sufficient mold of satisfactory 
quality shall be used, and a duly appointed employe or ex- 
pert of the department shall report that the conditions, such 
as the absence of poisonous gas and deleterious substances, 
have been made satisfactory and a permit granted therefor. 
3. No stem, branch, or leaf of any such tree or shrub 
shall be cut, broken, or otherwise disturbed without having 
been first examined by a duly appointed expert or employe 
of the department and a permit granted therefor. 
4. No root of any such tree or shrub shall be disturbed 
or interfered with in any way by any individual or any of- 
ficer or employe of a public or private corporation until the 
same shall have been examined and a permit issued therefor. 
5. The surface of the ground within three feet of any tree 
or shrub growing on any street, avenue, or other public thor- 
oughfare shall not be cultivated, fertilized, paved, or given 
any treatment whatever except under permit granted after 
an inspection by a duly appointed employe or expert of the 
department. 
6. It shall not be lawful to attach any guy rope, cable, or 
other contrivance to any tree or shrub or to use the same 
in connection with any hanner, transparency, or any business 
purpose whatever, except under a permit from this depart- 
ment. 
7. It shall not be lawful to cut. deface, mutilate, or in any 
way misuse any tree or shrub, nor shall any horse or other 
animal be permitted to stand in a manner or position where 
it may or shall cut, deface or mutilate any tree or shrub. 
8. 'Pile foregoing rules and regulations are also adopted 
and declared as ordinances. Any person violating the same 
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall on conviction 
therof before a city magistrate be punished by a fine not ex- 
ceeding $50, or in default of payment of such fine, by impris- 
onment not exceeding 30 days. 
In addition to the above there will be issued in due 
course a code of rules for the guidance and control of 
the inspectors employed by the commission, a very 
necessary matter we should judge from an examina- 
tion of the regulations, for unless in the hands of abso- 
lutely competent men, they may be made detrimental 
in view of personal prejudices and influences. We 
are inclined to the belief that in the care of a city's 
trees the most efficacious and rational method is the 
one-man system, where the authority being vested in 
a thoroughly educated city forester, his dictum would 
be recognized as final, and there would be far less 
chance for the pernicious influence or misplaced zeal 
that a complex body for some reason or the other usu- 
ally invites. The foregoing rules and regulations 
should, however, be the means of doing much good if 
properly administered under competent inspectorship, 
and it is on this that their value actually depends. 
Trees are now recognized as being of such essential 
value to urban comfort and health, that no amount of 
efifort to provide for their care and maintenance can be 
considered excessive, and the question is one for highl_\- 
educated expert consideration. 
