ORNAMENTAL PLANTING FOR PARKS, ETC. 125 



the varied duties of his position, is desirable. A new broom is 

 apt to sweep away or try to improve upon the Avork of tlie old, 

 and may in a day almost destroy the result of careful study and 

 years of development. 



The appointment of the executive head, and the skilled 

 gardener, should not be dictated, as is too often the case, by 

 political motives, but by skill, qualification, and entire fitness for 

 the responsible duties of the position. 



A change of administration ineans usually a change in the en- 

 tire policy of the preceding one. Thus plantations suffer for lack 

 of attention and timely thinning, or open vistas are made where 

 plantations have been massed to hide objectionable features. 



The following extract, clipped from a New York paper soon 

 after the appointment of Mr. Samuel Parsons as Superintendent 

 of Central Park, Avill illustrate this principle, the new broom, in 

 this case, being an intelligent medium of reform in the maladmin- 

 istration of the old one. 



The same defects have been noticeable in Prospect Park, 

 Brooklyn, from a like cause, and are being gradually remedied. 



The article is entitled : 



"RENEWING CENTRAL PARK. 



Defective Management of the Trees and Shrubbery to 

 BE Remedied. 



'' The necessity of a comprehensive renewal of the plantations 

 of Central Park is insisted upon by Superintendent of Parks 

 Samuel Parsons, who states that a loss of shapeliness, vigor, and, 

 in many instances, of life, has deprived them of many of their 

 ornaments and marred the original artistic effect of the designer. 

 This has largely resulted from stress of weather, but defective 

 management of the original system of planting has been mainly 

 to blame. 



" The intention of the designers of these plantations Avas to 

 create large masses and comparatively immediate effects, in pur- 

 suance of which trees and shrubs were set out at short distances 

 apart, the intention being to remove from time to time such 

 plants as showed signs of becoming crowded. The work of 

 thinning has not been persevered in, and all over the park trees 

 and shrubs may be seen whose shapeliness and proper develop- 

 ment have been prevented by overcrowding, while in some parts 



