126 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tlie plantations have suffered so from this cause that their re- 

 moval and renewal is the only remedy. Where the process of 

 thinning can still be pursued to advantage it will be necessary in 

 doing the work to bear in mind the original intention of the 

 designer, so as to find out the particular mass effects of sky lines, 

 middle distance, and foreground that were aimed at, and also to 

 comprehend the shadings of color that were intended to be pro- 

 duced. In order to accomplish this the missing links of color 

 and form must be supplied in the shape of fresh trees and shrubs, 

 and this must be done Avithout injuring too radically the existing 

 general effects of the park. 



" The selection of trees and shrubs for the new plantations is 

 another difficulty which presents itself in connection with the 

 proposed renewal. During the park's existence of thirty years it 

 has become apparent that many of those planted haA^e proved 

 unsuited to its soil and exposure. Among these are the Xorway 

 and other spruces, the pines, with the exception of the white, the 

 mugho, the Cembra, Japanese evergreens, known as the retinos- 

 poras, and, among deciduous trees and shrubs, the European ash, 

 poplar, alder, elm, and oak. On this account a careful revision 

 of the original list of trees must be made, with the aim to use in 

 large quantities such trees and shrubs as have come into use since 

 the plantations were made. The work involved in the renewal 

 will have to be done gradually, so as not to seriously mar the 

 park's general effect, and a system will have to be established of 

 removing only comparatively small portions of groups in different 

 parts of the park, new mold and fertilizer being applied wherever 

 the operation is carried on. 



" For the new trees a draft will have to be made upon foreign 

 and domestic nurseries, and the park nursery will have to be kept 

 well supplied with young trees in the future, so that the work of 

 transplanting can be readil}' accomplished at the most suitable 

 season. An enlargement of the force employed in the park will 

 be necessary in order to accom})lish the Avork, and the suggestion 

 is made that one hundred gardeners be employed in addition to 

 the force of tAventy-five or thirt}- now engaged, Avith the necessary 

 assistant laborers, Avhich done, the AVork may be greatly adA'anced 

 during the coming year. An estimate of the cost of the ])roposed 

 renewal is not possible, because the exact condition of tliousands 

 of trees and shrubs and the cost of handling each of them can 



