REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS FOR THE 



YEAR 190G. 



BY WILLIAM P. RICH, SECRETARY. 



The reduction in the number of prizes offered by the Society 

 the present year through the Committee on Gardens has had the 

 effect of reducing the number of entries and also the labors of the 

 committee. Four \dsits of inspection have been made which are 

 reported upon as follows: 



Charles W. Parker's Estate, jNIarblehead Neck, 



On June 11, by invitation of Charles W. Parker, Esq., the com- 

 mittee visited his estate, "Redgate," at Marblehead Neck. Viewed 

 from the standpoint of the truest ideal in landscape gardening this 

 is one of the most notable places on the North Shore of Massachu- 

 setts, and is an estate which may well be taken as a model for 

 the treatment of such places on our rocky coast. 



About twenty years ago Mr. Parker bought a tract of rough land, 

 twenty-five acres in extent, rising gradually from the ledges of the 

 harbor shore to an eminence of seventy-five feet. The land, or 

 rather rock, was covered with, a dense growth of native shrubbery, 

 such as blueberry, bayberry, juniper, and wild roses, with not a 

 tree except a few stunted cedars. 



The problem was to convert this rough hillside into a setting for 

 a summer home, and yet to utilize its natural features. To this 

 task Mr. Parker set himself with enthusiastic interest, guided by his 

 own artistic ideas of landscape arrangement, and the result is very 

 satisfactory. Even the original occupants of the ground, many 

 of which still remain in scattered colonies, lift up their heads higher, 

 bloom more freely, and show larger flowers and fuller fruit, as if 

 pleased with the improvements that have been made and stimu- 

 lated by the cultivated examples around them. 



