CEMETEKIES AND PAHKS. 101 



Office of the 



Board of Commissioners of the Washington Park, 



Albany, Oct. 21, 1889. 



Mr. John G. Barker, Superintendent, 



Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain. 



Dear Sir : — Your request for Park report is received. This 

 Board does not issue a descriptive report, but simpl}' a detailed 

 statement of expenses, which is sent in to the Common Council 

 soon after January 1 of each year. The annual budget is made 

 out by March 1 of each year, is approved by the Board and sent 

 in to the Finance Committee of the Common Council for insertion 

 in the cit}' tax budget. The Board has under its supervision 

 Washington Park, seven small city parks, and two miles of street 

 or boulevard improvement. The annual budget is about $21,000. 



Washington Park 814,000 



City Parks 1,600 



Street Maintenance . . . . . 2,000 



Office Expenses . . . . . 150 

 Salaries, (Superintendent's bills, Gardener, 



Treasurer's Clerk) ..... 3,250 



$21,000 



The maintenance of Washington Park and the city parks will, 

 I think, compare favorably with any of the parks in the country, 

 and this result is reached by a comparatively small outlay. The 

 labor is entirely under the supervision of the superintendent, and 

 the men are selected and placed by him without dictation or re- 

 striction. The park management is outside of politics. A proper 

 criticism might be made as to the monotony of the planting, but 

 a large proportion of the trees (elms) were established on the 

 greater portion of the area now devoted to the park, before the 

 grounds were laid out, and a gradual introduction of a more orna- 

 mental character of planting is being perfected as protection is 

 offered by structural windbreaks surrounding the site on the north 

 and west, and as the undesirable original growth disappears with 

 age, etc. Our shrubbery borders are extensive and of great 

 variety, affording a succession of bloom from early spring until 

 late in the fall. 



