"The damage to wearing surface comes largely from attrition of the grit or dust on the roadway. Oil compacts this grit or dust, and immediately checks deterioration from this source, preventing any damaging effect from automobile travel. "The road oil available for Kansas City is a paraffine base oil and becomes somewhat slippery when applied on steep grades, but is not noticeable on moderate grades. To overcome this objection, a mixture of commercial asphalt with residuum oil has been tried on The Paseo from Howard to Twenty-fourth streets, with excellent results, and further experiments will be made this year with this material and with an asphaltic oil from the Kentucky field; with this character of oil on grades exceeding 4 per cent, I feel sure we will have largely solved the dust problem in a manner satisfactory to all concerned. "I submit the following statement, somewhat in detail, covering the oiling operations for the past season with a plan of the unloading tanks and method of application. "Two steel receiving tanks of 8,000 gallons capacity each were erected near our spur track on the Belt railway, as shown on plan. The railroad tracks at this point are at sufficient elevation to permit unloading tank cars by gravity. A four-inch pipe line connects the receiving tanks to a short upright pipe in the center of switch track, which is connected to the outlet in bottom of tank car by a short piece of adjustable six-inch hose, fastened with iron clamps around outside of pipes. "A portable four-horse power boiler is erected, as shown, with threefourth inch steam pipe running to each tank, which provides ample steam to heat the oil so it will run freely and remain warm until delivered on the street. "This plant for unloading has worked very efficiently and cost, erected and all connected up, approximately $750.00. "It was to be not essential to heat the oil handled in hot weather, after the middle of June, and until the middle of September the oil ran freely, and no particular object was gained by heating. "Adapting the ordinary street sprinkling cart for distributing oil on the street was a very simple matter, consisting of simply attaching a tin trough six inches in depth, and long enough to enclose the discharge valves, perforated with one-fourth inch holes about one and one-half inches apart. The oil allowed to come into this trough through the valves is then evenly distributed over the road. * * * "The best results were obtained when the road was absolutely dry and hot. "After sweeping the road as clean as possible with a rotary street broom, leaving the sweepings along the edge of the gutter to prevent the oil running on on the cement work, the oil was applied over the entire surface and thoroughly spread with brooms, after which the sweepings from the gutter, with sufficient limestone screenings to form a light dressing were cast over the oiled surface and rolled down with a road roller. The object in using the screenings is to absorb such oil as does not penetrate into the road, and as soon as screenings are applied, the work is finished, and no further inconvenience to the public is encountered. "Cost of oiling. The first application made during May and June, 1907, cost as follows: Two applications on 375,415 square yards cost....$8,581.92 At an average cost per square yard for oiling of...$0.01055 The quality of oil used was a residium of 20 to 21 gravity, Baume, obtained from the Independent Refinery companies, at Chanute, Kansas. Total amount of oil used, 33 cars, or 277,365 gallons. Average amount of oil per square yard, .274 gallon. Average price paid for oil on track, $0.0184 per gallon or 771⁄2 cents per barrel of 42 gallons. "The above record covers all cost of labor, supplies and oil, but does not include the cost of the unloading plant." No park system can be operated with economy unless provided with nurseries and propagating houses of suitable size to afford an abundant supply of trees, shrubs, flowers and plants. In 1906, to a well established nursery in Swope park, was added three large propagating houses and the following year two additional were built. The capacity is now sufficient to supply abundantly flowers and foliage plants for the entire system and permits the maintenance of a number of formal floral designs in the park system. The following statements show the extent of this branch of park work in the spring of 1908: During the past year 150.000 new cuttings were planted and there are 128,000 trees and shrubs in healthy growing condition. The stock delivered during the fiscal year to the various park properties is as follows: .110,000 Total Operating expense, labor and supplies, 1907, Number of plants now in pots, ready to be planted.. These plants are grown in large pots, are finer plants and will cover a greater area than the 120,000 plants grown last year. The piping of natural gas from the southern Kansas gas fields to Kansas City has been a source of great economy to the park department, as well as to the city generally. The low price of $12.00 per year for street lights has made it possible to place them with generous frequency upon the boulevards and park drives. In many localities where electric lights had been in use, the gas lights have been substituted, a lamp every seventy-five feet, and it has proven a decided improvement, the natural gas with Welsbach burners providing a strong, steady, white light and giving a uniform illumination along the roadways. Over two thousand lamps now furnish the lighting for the park drives and additions will be made before the close of the fiscal year. Lighting the North Cliff Drive has been a specially noticeable feature, the continuous, closely placed lights upon the sides of the bluffs sharply defining the three miles of this winding roadway. They produce a decidedly scenic effect plainly visible to the many out-going and incoming trains upon both sides of the Missouri river valley. Swope Park has a fine shelter building of a size in keeping with the park, built of native stone, with broad verandas on all sides. The outlook from the east is especially attractive in a broad meadow expanse upon which a public golf course has been made, the valley of the Blue river and the wooded hills on the eastern limits of the park, two miles distant. In the immediate foreground is the sunken garden with a flower display of exceptional beauty each season. In this park there are also a restaurant building, a large storehouse and barn, a fine residence for the foreman, large green houses and two additional shelter buildings. During the present year (1908) the work on two fine lakes has been rapidly carried forward and the first now contains about fourteen acres of water and when filled to the overflow will cover some twenty acres. The second and main lake, to be fed from this first, is adjacent to the extensive athletic grounds to be established in the coming year. The larger lake will cover some forty acres and will no doubt become a popular resort for boating, and with the athletic grounds form a most attractive section of this large and beautiful park. The North Terrace Park has a foreman's residence, storehouse and a beautiful shelter building and grand stand known as the The Colonnade just completed in the present fiscal year at a cost of $32,000. It is built on the side of the bluffs in a most sightly location overlooking the North Cliff Drive and the valley of the Missouri river. It is connected by a broad flight of stone steps with the driveway some forty feet below the building. The outlook from The Colonnade embraces one of the finest landscape views about the city, north, east, and west portions of the city the valley of the Missouri river and the hills of Clay county to the north, make it an exceedingly picturesque and attractive location. The Paseo, with a fine fountain at Tenth street and adjacent to it the Pergola and the more pretentious fountain at Fifteenth street, is the better finished of all Park properties. The rest place at Twelfth street and the Paseo, the public bath with swimming pool on the parade, the reproduction of the Kansas City Casino, from the St. Louis World's fair, on the |