REPORT 



COMMITTEE ON GARDENS, 



FOB, THE YEAR 1890. 



By JOHN G. BARKER, Chairman. 



We again bring to the Society the report of our doings for the 

 past year. The applications for the various premiums have been 

 much less in number than we could have hoped. For years there 

 have been none for the H. H. Hunnewell Triennial Premiums. 

 Whether there is a lack of interest on the part of those who own 

 places of the size prescribed, or whether three consecutive vears is 

 too long a term to require a place to be kept in order, for the amount 

 offered, is more than we can tell, but this much we can safely 

 venture to suggest, that we should encourage as far as possible 

 not only the judicious laying out of small places, but a more 

 general desire to learn how to plant and maintain them in the 

 most economical manner. Our suburbs are fast filling up with 

 such places. Larger estates, with an abundance of glass-houses, 

 and everything on an extensive scale which wealth only can ob- 

 tain, are the exception and not the rule. When we look back 

 and think of the man}' interesting and well-kept places that once 

 existed near Boston, but are now no moi'e, we deeply regret the 

 change. 



In too many instances a lack of interest is the reason why these 

 grand old places are entirely obliterated ; unlike the custom in 

 Old England, these estates are not handed down from one gen- 

 eration to another. But not unfrequently the march of progress 

 brings the railroad, and the well-kept garden must yield to the 

 public needs and the demands of the real-estate man ; and where 



