324 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



this Society, your Committee, with other gentlemen, spent a very 

 delightful day in inspecting under his guidance the territory com- 

 prising the Fells. We regret that we have not his own account of 

 the inception and growth of this project, which he had promised 

 us ; but the labors of our friend have ended. We shall append a 

 few statistics and facts such as are now at our command, and will 

 bring to your notice as briefly as possible the object of his desire 

 and exertions. 



At a public meeting held in 1881 in the town of Medford, in the 

 interest of this project, a letter was read from Mr. John Botume, 

 in which he said: "The territory contains within itself all the 

 requirements of a magnificent natural park — fine old pines and 

 hemlocks, many varieties of oak, walnut, birch, and elm trees ; 

 superb water views, not only of inland lakes and ponds but of the 

 ocean, and winding roads and paths among trees through whose 

 interlaced branches the summer sun hardly penetrates. It appears 

 to me that its manifest destiny is to be also the most useful com- 

 pared with any tract of its size. The distance from the Boston 

 Post Office to its centre is six miles, the same distance that the. 

 people of Chicago have to travel to reach their great West Side 

 Park. Her park is artistically beautiful, but it is not nature, and 

 she would give millions for such opportunities as you have before 

 you." Mr. Wright said " that the proposition was to subscribe 

 money enough to buy the property at its assessed value, and then 

 ask the vState to take it bj' right of eminent domain. The territory 

 would be put under the charge of competent men, and in fifty 

 years under proper cultivation and management would produce 

 forty thousand dollars worth of timber annually, which would be 

 for the benefit of the State. All the rocks and hills could be 

 covered with pine in a hundred years." He did not believe a 

 single proprietor of the one hundred and thirty who own the Fells 

 would object to the plan proposed. 



Perhaps this outline of the project is enough to bring before 

 you at this time. Nature has done much ; art may help ; judici- 

 ously laid out paths and roadways from the main roads to the 

 prominent points could not fail of making this one of the finest 

 natural parks not only in this Commonwealth, but in this country. 



In these days of Forestry Congresses as well as magnificent 

 parks and gardens, on the latter of which so much money is being 

 uselessly spent, can this Society do better than to encourage the 



