St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-16
CITY BEAUTY SPOTS.
The Park superintendent
Tells of the Work Of the
Past Year.
A Murderer With q Long
Name Rounded Back from
Chicago.
Mysterious Lottery Admis-
sions Made by a Mexican
in this City.
Eight-Hour Eloquenee Poured
Hmm q Moot of Tohnr
Eight-Hour Eloquenee Poured
Upon a Meet at Labor
Hall.


| has been made In tree planting and i'm
provements of that kind about the city.
AT Como'park, says the superinten-
dent, the work of improvement was
continued with small force through
out the year. At Summit avenue bouie-
ward quite an advance was made in
grading and preparing for planting, and
| some planting was done there. The
board has not assumed the care of the
older public squares in the city, nor of
| newer parks selected by the board but
not yet fully acquired.
The peculiar attractiveneSs of that
| part of Como park lying near the north
| west limits of Lake Como, and known
| as ''Indian Point" has for long time
been shown by the number of people
| choosing that locality for spending a
Sunday OF holiday afternoon. Its COM
handing elevation. shady slope toward
| the lake and isolation have served to
! make it desirable resort.
During the past year we have, in a
measure perhaps, robbed it of its feat
ure ofseclusion by opening park drive
along its western margin and a connect
ing loop drive around the crest of the
| hill. These changes make the place
dSCCooioiC W pCoplC III anu,
| with Otner Improvements, will cause it
to be much greater resort for people
| on foot especially so if the lake and its
shores be improved. The length of
drive graded as above is 2,400 feet,
| which, added to that previously graded,
| makes total of 1880 feet, or 81 miles
| OF Como park drives now in use. Walks
| were opened from the several park
| entrances to and through the above
| grounds and to the other shady and at
tractive sites, in length aggregating
about two and and half miles, and gem
orally of a width of eight feet. The
| drives are thirty feet in width, except
those leading toward the fair grounds
| or to the park concourse from the War
| rendale entrances. These are forty feet
| in width.
The borders of the drives and walks
| were graded, shaped and seeded; ex-
| tensive stretches of thick underground
| cleared away: the ground thoroughly
| grubbed and Smoothed preparatory to
| seeding: dead limbs trimmed from the
| trees; old stumpS removed: and the
timber land throughout the southern
| section of the park made accessible, eX-
| cept where il was desirable that patches
| of thicket be left for screens, and to
! give pleasing variety and contrast.
Two wells for drinking water were
sunk; one on the east slope of Indian
Point. and the other near the southern
margin of the West Grove.
1t is almost impossible to successfully
force drive-point through the stony
ground and clay everything the water
bearing strata. Water is not reached
till we pierce through the clay basin
some depth below the lake-water level.
but, when reached, it usually rises a lit,
tie higher than the water in the lake.
After several failures with drive points,
the wells were dug and curbed with
plank. in one case entirely to the water,
and in the other nearly to the water, so
that the pump cylinders are long dis
lance below the surface of the ground.
The water obtained is very cool, palat-
able and abundant.
Tree planting during the year in
Como Park included trees presented as
follows: One hundred large Siberian
arbOr vitae, given by Joseph Sewell,
large ground juniper, given by Mr.
Quinn: IA elmS, so sugar naples. Z Lin
den and ash. given by Rev. John Ire
laud: and rs lilacs, 5 roses, l 0leander
and some Sedum, given by William Hen
erickson.
Also the following named trees. mostly
purchased at nominal price from town
lots that once formed part of the
West, or Bryant, nursery: l05 butter
nut, 101 ash, 225 soft naples, 80 poplars.
81 elm, 20 spruce and rs pine.
Large additions of small trees were
made to the Park nursery, as follows:
$500 white spruce from Wisconsin
swamps, 100 white pine, $50 elm. 400 box
elder, 800 sugar maple, $50 white ash
and 4S0 native maintain ash
The stock now in the Park nursery is
as follows: $3.50 white spruce, 175
white pine, SIPS evergreens. so honey
suckle, 9S5 elm, 700 white ash,
800 mountain ash, 395 box elder,
292 sugar maple, 600 soft maple,
80 snow ball, 250 lilac. 80 Spirea, 100 bar
berry, 40 roses, 900 Virginia creeper,
740 shrubs and vines, So butternut. rs
honey locust. % catalpa. 80 golden will
lows, 1000 seeding box elder, 4,657 de-
ciduouS, 5.725 evergreenS, 740 shrubs
and vines, making IL, 122 of all kinds.
The phenomenally dry season made
the preservation of trees and shrubs
planted the past two years very burden
some and expensive. Four water
wagons had to be regularly employed
for a considerable time hauling water
from the lake and distributing it to the
trees. From the small park greenhouse,
built in the fall of 'SS and supplemented
in the spring with cold frames, 7,7OO
bedding plants and 1900 plants from
seeds were furnished and planted out
in Como park, and $500 more in Summit
boulevard and Alice park. Late in the
fall of 1880 the length of the
greenhouse was doubled and
second furnace and chimney added.
Stock plants were secured before the
rost came, and the enlarged greenhouse
now contains 10000 potted plants, be-
sides fully 5000 cuttings and seedlings.
Many of these will be. or are already,
too large for planting out, but will sup
ply abundance of cuttings whenever the
weather permits of putting plants into
the cold frames. During the winter
months good supply of manure has
been secured, largely from dairy stables.
This can be done more economically and
with much less disturbance of the park
surfaces when the ground is frozen.
The unsightly swamp just west of the
park entrance, near the lake, has been
greatly changed by eXcavating the peat
and filling the hole with sand obtained
from deepening two valleys just west of
the public road. When brought to the
proper grade the peat will be spread
over the sand to form spongy subSOil,
and that in turn covered with top soil
from the field east of the workhouse.
While securing sand for filling the
swamp enough gravel was obtained to
surface the drives and walks graded
this year.
The work in winter is done chiefly by
inmates of the workhoaSe. not because
of its economy in that season, but more
because that labor cannot then be other
wise more profitably employed,
Throughout the year we have had the
service of one or more squads of work.
house laborers: the number of such
men varying from twelve to fifty or al
average of thirty-three. The eXpendi-
lures for hired labor during the year
were almost identical with that Of the
year before. namely, S10.535.05.
There were paid for 9,5S7 trees (mostly
for the nursery, S9l0.14, and for grass
seed, flower seeds, bulbs and roots,
S140.55.
The improvement OF Summit avenue
boulevard was commenced late in the
spring by the planting of evergreens,
ten to twenty-five feet in height, taken