298 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE ONE PRECIOUS THING 
The one precious thing in the world is knowl- 
edge. And we are so near the savage that it is 
necessary to have laws to compel the people to 
accept knowledge offered free, as it was once neces- 
sary by law to forbid cannibalism, and even the 
eating of human bodies that had died of the plague. 
This is the age of unlimited production and of 
imperfect distribution. Our power to manufacture, 
the world’s supply of wealth, all that the body 
and the mind need are unlimited. But the intelli- 
gence of the world has been devoted to selfish ac- 
cumulation, none to unselfish distribution. 
Good pictures are wasted; the people do not see 
them. Parks are wasted; people do not go to them. 
Libraries are wasted: the books are not read. 
Concerts would take the people to the museum 
of art and to scientific collections in the other 
museums. The concerts should be supplied. 
Concerts and other attractions could, and should, 
be devised to take the people to the parks, more 
games for the children, swimming-pools of salt 
water pumped from the ocean, pure and very cheap 
milk, and bread for the mothers and their children, 
private rooms and warm water for changing the 
children’s clothes, and a place to put them to sleep. 
The father who can give his children “advan- 
tages” sees to it that the advantages are not neg- 
lected. The republic that can give its children 
opportunities should see that the opportunities are 
not wasted, and should not scorn to devise plans 
that would make opportunities tempting. The prob- 
lem of parks and museums is comparatively sim- 
ple. 
Put in the parks and museums music and other 
attractions that the people want, and they will go. 
Gradually they will learn to love the green fields 
and trees, the pictures and the scientific exhibitions 
for themselves. 
If you think it is a good idea to interest the peo- 
ple in good things, do your share. Do not merely 
approve the idea. 
There are many ways of doing good to human 
beings, but the greatest thing you can do for a 
man is to teach him to use his own brain and to 
appreciate that which is beautiful. 
Now, it is quite evident that Mr. Cor- 
bin’s views as to the necessity of en- 
couraging the public to use the parks 
are in accord with our well-known ex- 
periences, but the remedies which he 
suggests are likely to prove inadequate. 
Franklin Park in Boston, admittedly 
one of the most beautiful natural parks 
in this country, improved under the di- 
rection of the foremost landscape archi- 
tect that the past or present generation 
has produced, maintained a solitary ex- 
istence until the zoo was started, a few 
years ago, and now on pleasant Sundays 
or holidays from 30,000 to 50,000 people 
can be found there, not all of whom 
give their undivided attention to the ani- 
mals, but are attracted to the broad 
meadows, the grassy slopes, the quiet of 
the shady groves or the distant views 
from the hilltops. 
A golf course has also added to the 
attractions of the country park. Now, 
one might go on indefinitely and enu- 
merate a thousand and one things to at- 
tract the public. Each community has 
its own requirements; all kinds of sports 
should be provided, but the question 
finally resolves itself into one of pub- 
licity; we must so ingratiate ourselves 
with the public that they cannot resist 
the impulse to partake of the pleasures 
and enjoyments which we offer. One of 
the best mediums to obtain this desired 
publicity is through the influence of the 
school children; here we have a perfect- 
ed organization in every town and city 
that is invaluable. 
But let us not deceive ourselves into 
the belief that all these suggestions can 
be carried out by merely giving instruc- 
tions to do so and so; the proper con- 
duct of recreation activities entails a tre- 
mendous expense. Members of park 
boards and members of city governments 
cannot expect to meet with any measure 
of success in the attempt to popularize I 
the parks without such expenditure. 
We of this twentieth century are quite 
likely to think that our playgrounds and 
recreation parks are the fruits of mod- 
ern ideas and the results of recent civic 
development and research, but if we 
study the history of the best known of 
the ancient cities, Athens, we will find 
that Grecian civilization evolved the idea 
of a recreation park 500 years prior to 
the Christian era. Pericles is said to have 
instituted the Lyceum, a gymnasium 
surrounded with pleasant gardens and 
shady groves. The philosopher, Aris- 
totle, here held forth, and the opponents 
of his school of philosophy, Socrates and 
his followers, made their headquarters 
at a similar institution, the Academy; 
here, also, Plato lived, taught and was 
buried. 
A sport that is perhaps overlooked in 
many parks is that of bowling on the 
green. Its possibilities are worthy of 
consideration, not only because it is a 
keen, enjoyable sport which appeals like 
golf to the man who is past the age 
when he can take part in the more stren- 
uous games, but it is what we might 
term an economical sport in so much as 
while the initial cost of the green is con- 
siderable, yet thirty or forty contestants 
may play in a space 150 feet square. 
Everything then that calls the people 
to the parks can be made a part of the 
publicity propaganda and will tend to 
arouse a greater appreciation of the beau- 
ties of nature. 
AN EXHIBIT OF CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE 
Among the various fungous diseases 
which are destructive to trees, perhaps 
the one which attacks the chestnut bark 
has attracted more attention in recent 
years than any other. While there are 
few chestnut trees growing in Missouri, 
the number of inquiries which have come 
to the Missouri Botanical Garden con- 
cerning the blight indicate that there is 
considerable local interest in it, and an 
exhibit illustrating the effect of the fun- 
gus has been installed in the museum of 
the Botanical Garden at St. Louis. 
This disease of the chestnut was first 
discovered in New York in the year 1906. 
All the evidence at hand points to its 
having been introduced from the Orient 
with nursery stock about twenty-five 
years ago. From the vicinity of New 
York City it spread eastward and south- 
ward with an alarming rapidity, until at 
the present time the region infected ex- 
tends from Maine on the north to North 
Carolina on the south. Not only has the 
spread of this disease been phenomenal, 
but it has literally swept everything be- 
fore it, with the result that healthy chest- 
nuts are now all but unknown in west- 
ern Connecticut, southern New York, 
Delaware, New Jersey and eastern Penn- 
sylvania, and in the centers of worst in- 
fection every chestnut has been killed. 
The pest bids fair at the present time 
to wipe out completely the chestnut 
throughout its range along the Appa- 
lachian Mountains unless some success- 
ful method of attack should be found 
within a few years. 
The chestnut bark disease is due to 
the fungus Endothia parasitica, which at- 
tacks exclusively the chestnut and the 
chinquapin. This fungus can enter the 
bark only through wounds of various 
sorts, such as are caused by mechanical 
injury, insect punctures, woodpecker 
holes, etc. Once the fungus has started 
in the bark or cambium, it progresses 
very steadily and rapidly, and although 
it remains practically dormant during 
the winter months, growth is vigorously 
resumed with the return of warm 
weather. The cankers are produced on 
both the branches and the main trunk, 
and are orange-colored or brown. In 
the course of time the branch or tree is 
girdled, resulting in the death of all 
parts above the canker. If the entire 
tree above ground is killed, numerous 
sprouts or “suckers’’ may be produced at 
its base, but these in turn fall a rapid 
prey to the attacks of the parasite. 
Two kinds of reproductive bodies, or 
spores, are formed by the fungus. One 
of these makes itself evident after warm 
rains in the form of long, thread-like 
masses called spore horns, containing 
many millions of spores which ooze out 
from small openings in the diseased tis- 
sues. The second type of spore, the as- 
cospore, is forcibly ejected into the air 
