EDITOR'S TABLE. 



iSIioi''^ lijble. 



The Season. — "VTe thonglit, at one time, that we were going to have a spring of unpre- 

 cedented earliness. On tlie twelt'tli of March the ground was pretty generally free from 

 frost, and outdoor operations were briskly commenced. For nearly a week the weather 

 continued as mild and beautiful as May, when, on the eighteenth, a strong gale of wind 

 suddenly came up, and with it intense cold, which completely froze up the ground again, 

 and put a stop to all outdoor work. The high wind and cold continued nearly three days, 

 trying severely greeu-houses and hot-beds, as well as bulbous roots and other articles that 

 had been uncovered on the expectation of spring. We do not think that the fruit buds 

 suffered, because the warmth had scarcely been of sufficiently long continuance to excite 

 them, nor has the cold been so intense as to do them injury in their backAvard condition. 



The Downing Monument. — We have been informed that the fund now collected for this 

 monument amounts to about one tliousand dollars. The design is a vase of pure white 

 marble, on a pedestal of five feet in height, the whole to be nine feet. The vase is to be 

 elaborately carved, and the pedestal to bear a suitable inscription. It is contemplated, we 

 believe, to place it in some of the public grounds at Washington. If the Few Yorkers had 

 succeeded in their great central park project, that would have been the place for it, Ave 

 think. We would rather place it on the Boston Common than on any of tlie public grounds 

 at Was^hington, in their present state. They might do for the monument of a soldier, but 

 not for that of a man of such tastes as Downino's. 



The Paek Question in New York. — We are indebted to Samuel J. G ustin, Esq., of 

 Newark, N. J., for reports, documents, and proceedings relative to the New York Parks. 

 The question is yet, we believe, undecided. Some are in favor of "Jones' Park" — a tract 

 of ground containing 153 acres, part of it heavily wooded, lying between the Third avenue 

 and the East River, not a great distance from the Hurlgate ferry. " Central Park," con- 

 tains upwards of 700 acres, almost in the center of the island, between Sixteenth and 

 lOGth streets and the Fifth and Eighth avenues, being about half a mile Avide and two and 

 one-fourth miles long. This ground embraces the site of the ncAV Croton reservoir, Avhich 

 Avill be in fact a lake of nearly 100 acres area; also, the State Arsenal and St. Vincent's 

 Academy. The ground is rocky and uneven ; some portions of it being elevated, and com- 

 manding a fine view of the rivers, villages, and country, that surround the island of New 

 York. A magnificent park might be made on this ground; a park every Avay Avorthy the 

 great commercial metropolis. Jones Park is reconnncnded as being more available at 

 present, having Avoods on it that may be thinned out, and alibrd shade and ornament at 

 once, and at a comparatively trifling cost. Admit this; though Ave have little faith in the 

 practicability of making handsome park trees of many of those noAV standing on Jones' 

 Avoods. A feAV around the outsides Avould do very avoU. But Avhat is a park of 150 acres 

 w York, not as she is, but as slie Avill be five and twenty years hence? Notl 

 ill Avant both of these parks ; and, if the people of Ncav York could appreciate 



