292 



HOP.T1CULTURE: 



August 31, 1907 



SEEN AT RIVERTON. 



Exhibit i>f. Calauiuji?', Feuns and Phuimx 



We present herewith two views 

 taken in the Dreer greenhouses on the 

 occasion of the S. A. F. visit last weelc. 

 The Dreer establishment was founded 

 in 1S82 and incorporated in 1S92 with 

 Wm. F. Dreer as president of the com- 

 pany. The nurseries at Riverton 

 cover 100 aci'es and there is an auxil- 

 iary farm ol SO acres near Moores- 

 town, N. .1. The glass at Riverton 

 covers nine acres and heating is done 

 by sixteen boilers, the water and 

 steam beine; distriljuted through 23 

 miles of pipe. 



In the group of new nephrolepis 

 shown herewith are included Todea- 



oides, W'bitniaiiii. ATnorpohlii, Dreer's 

 Robusta and a numlier of unnamed 

 sjjorts originating with Dreer and 

 Barrov;s. 



A laree space is devoted to fern.i. 

 of which about two million plants arc 

 handled during the season and palm;; 

 occupy a larsr area — there being at 

 liresent 500,000 plants in stock in vari- 

 ous sizes. 



About luO acres are devoted to the 

 culture of dahlias, cannas and hardy 

 perennials. The aquatic gardens cover 

 an area of six acres in which are grown 

 all known varif-ries of water lilies and 

 lotus; making the largest and most 

 complete collection in existence. 



ExHii'.iT OF New Nephrolepis Forms 



THE IDEAL PARK. 



An address before the Ameiicau Association 



o£ Park Superintecdeuts, by Theodore 



WUth. 



I have often thoaght, of late years, 

 ihat Paik work would at times be- 

 come almost monotonous if same re- 

 quired orly the attention and skill to 

 make parks attiactive and keep them 

 in good trim. Yet it was, more or 

 less, with such a confined idea of duty 

 and requirement, that I assumed the 

 administrati\'e burden of my first ap- 

 poiiitmeiu as park superintendent. 



I entered that service as a landscape 

 gardener. Today, i proudly claim to 

 be more, l)ecause I have found out that 

 our parks must be more than only 

 beauty spots in order to accomplish 

 all the good they can in public life. 

 I am linding, almost daily, new fields 

 and openings for useful, beneficial 

 service to the public, outside of the 

 gardening profession, and all those in- 

 novations into the original plans and 

 ideas of park work and park life, do 

 not only not interfere or mar tho 

 beauty of the original picture and its 

 conception, but on the contrary, in most 

 cases they enhance the beauty of same, 

 and in all they many-fold increase the 

 value of the work as a whole. 



Some twenty-five years ago, one of 

 the leading park builders of the West, 

 was engaged in designing a park 

 system for a very promising growing 

 city, and in reading his report out- 

 lining the plans he then submitted, one 

 can readily see that outside of the de- 

 sire to iJreserve natural scenery and 

 create additional beauty spots, the full, 

 far-reaching value of parks as a recrea- 

 iiou grounds was at that time not fully 

 lecognized, or at least did not receive 

 due consideration. Let mo quote him 

 as follows: 



"I strongly recommend an extended 

 sy.otem of boulevards, or ornamental 

 avenues, rather than a series of de- 

 tached open areas or public squares. 

 The latter are certainly desirable and 

 always form attractive features, but 

 they are comparatively local in their 

 character, and fail to impart such 

 dignity and beauty as is conferred by 

 a grand ornamental avenue, compris- 

 ing a continual sucession of pretty 

 gardens enlivened by the constant 

 passing of througs of pedestrians and 

 fine equipages." 



Now tins man at his time was up-to- 

 date, and the sentiment and opinion 

 cxpves.sed in those few lines show, it 

 1 interpret them right, a certain limit 

 of the purpose and usefulness of parks, 

 which in the last ten or fifteen years 

 has almost everywhere been happily 

 overstepped and widened. The local, 

 district or neighborhood park, what- 

 ever we may call same, has come to 

 the foreground as a most important 

 factor to any complete park system. 



New cities in planning their system 

 give them from the beginning due 

 consideration and thought, while older 

 cities spend enormous sums to acquire 

 comparatively small tracts of land for 

 this very purpose and need, which, al- 

 though always in existence, has been 

 clearly underestimated if it has not 

 been totally unrecognized. 



The by far largest percentage of 

 those neighborhood parks are or 

 should be located in those parts of our 

 cities where the population is or -will 

 become the most congested, and conse- 

 quently they are the recreation grounds 



