PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND 
LANDSCAPE 
GARDENING 
PUBLISHED BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
R. J. HAIGHT, President 
H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and General Manager 
O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
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FEBRUARY, 1917 
E D I T O R I A L 
VOL. XXVI No. 12 
Making Our National Parks Usable 
That over a million and a half people use the national 
forests as playgrounds each year was the statement made by 
Henry S. Graves, chief of the Forest Service, before the 
.American Forestry Association recently. The keynote of the 
present-day policy is to secure such a disposition, use and 
development of the public lands as will render a maximum 
service to the public. 
"Innumerable localities on the national forests, which are 
not generally known, have a wealth of scenic beauty,” Mr. 
Graves said. A very practical problem, he stated, is that of 
opening up and making these great public properties avail- 
able for as wide use as possible by people of little means 
as well as by the wealthy. In the national forests of Colo- 
rado alone there were last summer 676,000 visitors. Thou- 
sands came in automobiles and used the roads built by the 
Forest Service under the law which provides that 10 per cent 
of all receipts of the national forests shall be spent for 
road and trail building. The recreation features of the na- 
tional forests are fostered in a variety of ways. Areas of 
scenic value are set aside as camping sites and are withdrawn 
from any use which would reduce their beauty. Roads and 
trails are built by the Forest Service to open up points of 
scenic interest, streams are stocked with fish, and sites for 
summer homes can be leased for long periods. About 25,000 
miles of trails and 3.CC0 miles of roads have been built on 
the forests, Mr. Graves stated. "Congress has appropriated 
a special fund of ten million dollars for road building on 
the national forests, which willl become available at the rate 
of a million dollars a year. This money, added to the quar- 
ter of a million dollars now annually available from the 
receipts of the forests, will result in opening up many regions 
now inaccessible for industrial use and also for recreation. 
“In developing the recreational resources of the forests we 
are planning systematically and far ahead,” says Mr. Graves. 
“Problems of landscape and sanitary engineering present 
themselves in large numbers and we have associated with us 
a distinguished landscape engineer to guide our work. Our 
system of scenic highways when’ worked out will be com- 
prehensive in character, and ultimately routes of tourist travel 
will be furnished with comfortable hotels and rest houses.” 
Secretary Houston has announced the amount allotted to 
each state from the million dollars to be spent during the 
fiscal year 1918 in constructing roads and trails within or 
partly within the national forests. This money is part of the 
ten million dollars appropriated by the Federal Aid Road 
-Act to assist development of the national forests, which be- 
comes available at the rate of a million dollars a year for ten 
years. 
The allotments as approved are as follows: Alaska, $46,354 ; 
■Arizona, $58,604; .Arkansas, $9,803; California, $140,988; Col- 
orado, $62,575; Idaho, $108,730; Montana, $70,042; Nevada, 
$19,296; New Mexico, $42,495; Oregon, $128,111; South Da- 
kota, $8,092; Utah, $41,167; Washington, $91,944; AA^yoming, 
$40,684. A total of $9,995 has been allotted to Florida, Michi- 
gan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and Oklahoma. The 
group of Eastern states — Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, 
North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Aurginia and AA’est 
Afirginia — in which the government is purchasing lands for 
national forests, receives $21,120. 
Editorial Notes 
The National Fertilizer .Association is urging all buyers 
and shippers of fertilizers to get orders forward as early as 
possible in order to avoid extreme car-shortage conditions 
that prevail now and will be even more acute at the opening 
of spring. The railroads can spare only a limited number 
of railroad cars for fertilizer shipments. The period just 
before the coming of spring is one of their greatest rush 
seasons. .All buyers of fertilizers as well as of other sup- 
plies for spring work should bear in mind the freight-car 
shortage, the danger of embargo on some railroads and the 
need of early shipments. 
The rate of growth of trees in woodlots and in jilanta- 
tions in central New A’ork is being studied by the junior 
class of the New A'ork State College of Forestry under the 
direction of I’rof. J. Fred Baker, Director of F'orest In- 
vestigations. Soil and climatic conditions in central New 
York are unexcelletl for maintenance and rapid forest 
growth. In fact, trees grow like weeds in New A'ork and 
there is not a square foot in the state where there is any 
soil at all which will not maintain a good forest growth. 
The so-called virgin forests of the Adiromlacks arc grow- 
ing today at the rate of about 200 board feet per acre per 
year. Properly managcfl forests, sucli as those of the 
Black F'orests of southwestern flerniany, are growing at 
the rate of from l.fXIO to 1,200 board feet per acre iter year. 
Reasonaitle use of farm woodlots and the planting of the 
right kinds of forest trees on forest soils means the pro- 
duction of excellent crops of timber, and that within a 
comparatively short period of time. 
Statistics gathered by the State Conservation Commis- 
sion, the Bureau of Census in New York State, and the 
New York State College of Forestry show that there are 
between ten and twelve millions of acres in New York 
better suited to the growing of timber than any other 
crop. The intense development of land by- I'.nropean na- 
tions shows that with the basic industry of agriculture 
there must be the development of the eiinally basic in- 
dustry of forestry. 
The necessity of more space for the Botanic Garden at 
AA'ashington has brought about an effort to secure a new and 
adec|uate permanent site for it. One suggestion is that it 
be removed to Rock Creek Park, and another that it be 
located at New Jersey avenue and D street, N. AA'., between 
the capitol and the Union station. Chairman .Slayden, of the 
llotisc Committee on the Library, will ask that committee 
to give early attention to the question of the removal of tin 
garden to some more suitable spot. The present area is 
believed to be too restricted and it is impossible to develop 
anything entitled to be called a botanic garden unless much 
more ground is provided. 
