(5) 
Much additional grading was done along the river road and 
along the road leading to the new public conservatories. 
In the herbaceous grounds the sides of the brook which 
runs north and south through the middle of the valley were 
regraded and the brook edges stoned up, greatly improving 
the valley. The topsoil needed for these grading operations 
has all been obtained by carefully stripping and saving it from 
the lines of paths and roads. 
Drainage 
Accompanying the construction of roads and paths, addi- 
tional catch-basins with drain-pipe connections have been 
constructed, and the system of grass gutters along the drive- 
ways has been continued. The overflow from the bronze 
fountain in front of the museum building, which was tempo- 
rarily discharged into one of the sewers and thus wasted, was 
turned into the drain system which empties into the upper 
lake, by means of a drain-pipe connection about 400 feet 
long under the lawn south of the museum building ; this 
waste water has kept the upper lake at overflow throughout 
the season, although the fountain has been played only about 
ten hours a day. 
During grading work in the herbaceous garden and in the 
establishment of the aquatic system in the economic garden, 
several hundred feet of tile drain were used, much improving 
the drainage of that valley. 
At the power-house of the new conservatories a 12-inch 
vitrified tile drain was laid for a distance of about 150 feet, 
passing under the floor of that building; as the construction 
work proceeds at this point much additional drain-pipe will 
have to be laid, inasmuch as the excavations for the cellars 
both of the power-house and of three of the greenhouses have 
shown the existence of springs. 
In my last annual report I referred to the desirability of 
lowering the dam in the Bronx river at the Lorillard mansion 
an additional 8 inches, 16 inches having been taken from it 
in the summer of 1902. This has not been done, owing to 
