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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



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IIORDER TLANTATION OF CONIFERS. 



On thf southern boundary near the Southwest Kntranc 



TREE-PLANTING IN THE ZOOLOCilCAL PARK. 



""PO every hirge city, every park which i> tci any 

 ■i extent a natural wilderness is an asset of 

 priceless value. In cities of the first rank, there are 

 very few park areas sufficiently remote from the dust 

 and roar of traffic, and the sight of buildings, that 

 the tired city-dweller can find within them any sug- 

 gestion of woodland seclusion. In the possession, 

 in Bronx Park, of these very elements, the City of 

 New York is particularly fortunate. 



Ever since the New York Zoological Society as- 

 sumed the responsibility of protecting and preserv- 

 ing the splendid forest area of the 261 acres now 

 comprising the Zoological Park grounds, it has been 

 conceded that extensive efforts in planting would 

 be imperatively necessary to shut out the chea]j 

 l)uiltjings of the city from overlooking and prac- 

 tically dominating the interior of the Park along 

 its .southern and western borders. 



Along the southern boundarv, for a distance of 

 more than 2,000 feet, the buildings that will shortly 

 be erected (iii the hi''h irroiind of \^'est Farms Hill 



will completely oxorlook the lower grounds of the 

 Park. Excei)ting the grove which surrounds the 

 Antelope House, the whole southern boundary of 

 the Park is mercilessly exposed. The western 

 boundary, which has a length of 2,750 feet, is but 

 little better off. Already three-story tenements 

 along the western side of the Southern Boulevard 

 begin to wall in the Park grounds, and the few fine 

 maples that until now have shaded portions of the 

 Southern Boulevard are in imminent danger of 

 being killed by the recent grading, regulating and 

 fiUing-in of that thoroughfare. 



During the past three years, the forestry force of 

 the Zi)ological Park has each year done a consider- 

 able amount of planting, for the purpose of securing 

 what are known as '' border plantations," but, in 

 comparison with this year's operations, all previous 

 work has been on a small scale. Having fortun- 

 ately secured from the Board of Estimate tin ttppro- 

 priation sufficient to permit of the extensi\e plant- 

 ing oi)enitions which the Societ\' h:is long htid in 



