PARK ADMINISTRATION 



mate and common practice in commercial nurseries to cut down trees 

 and shrubs which have outgrown the size of economical transplanting. 

 An alternative is to abandon the policy of growing general stock and 

 limit the function of the park nurseries to production of special kinds 

 of material, such as boxwood, yew, slow growing pine, and varieties 

 of broad-leaved evergreens which take a long period to mature, and 

 which represent a constantly increasing value without ever reaching 

 a turning point when the specimens commence to lose value for 

 economy of transplanting as in the case of deciduous material and 

 general varieties of conifers. This method will furnish the park 

 system with a nursery which, in the course of years when the specimens 

 not needed for use during that time become mature, will provide the 

 park designer with material for immediate effect which he could not 

 obtain in any other way. 



The second condition, resulting in " promiscuous " planting, is one 

 which should be counteracted by public opinion. Plan must always be 

 superior and preliminary to planting. When planting appears to be 

 merely dumped in, the public should " get wise " and express itself. 

 The landscape architect, also, may help himself in this respect by 

 keeping the design for new parks as far in advance of execution as 

 possible, thereby thwarting erratic and meaningless planting. With 

 definitely prepared landscape projects at hand, those in authority 

 will find it difficult to make a grandstand showing by premature plant- 

 ing or without executing the plan as a whole, and appropriation 

 balances or ambition for newspaper notices will not then jeopardise 

 but will assist park advancement. 



The matter of dividing plant orders among a large number of nur- 

 serymen, so that all applicants may have equal share, can be regulated 

 most easily by installing the competitive bid system, which will soon 

 eliminate the jobbing firms and those which cannot live up to specifica- 

 tions or up to their own representations. 



242 



