GRAVES: HURRICANE DAMAGE 71 



Outside of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mr. David D. Schweizer, Di- 

 rector of Horticulture of the New York City Park Department, reports that 

 in the whole City, 16,000 street trees are to be removed and 12,000 are to be 

 straightened; while 7,600 park trees are to be removed, and 5,220 are to be 

 straightened. Mr. Carl J. Schiff, Arboriculturist of Brooklyn, reports that 979 

 trees are down in Prospect Park, and 150 require straightening, and Mr. T. 

 H. Everett, Horticulturist of The New York Botanical Garden, states that 

 180 large trees are down in that Garden, some of them huge specimens. 



Of the Boroughs the worst sufferer was Queens, and next in order came 

 Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Richmond. Fort Tryon Park did not suffer 

 heavily, but about a half dozen big trees in the region of the Cloisters were 

 lost. Inwood was damaged only slightly, perhaps because of a somewhat pro- 

 tected position. These last two areas, as well as Westchester, were also more 

 remote from the path of the hurricane. 



At first we believed that the great losses in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 

 could be explained from the early history of the Garden. For the land now oc- 

 cupied by the Garden was formerly used by the City for dumping rubbish ; 

 hence the subsoil might be expected to contain a stony or coal ash mixture not 

 conducive to the development of deep root systems. We know that in grading 

 for the Rose Garden in 1927 the remains of an old city roadbed were un- 

 earthed. 3 However, Prospect Park, which adjoins the Garden, across Flatbush 

 Avenue to the westward, has no such history. As old pictures show, 4 it was 

 formerly open land and woods with farms and an occasional large estate. Yet 

 I found the damage just as severe in Prospect Park as in the Botanic Garden. 



Was there any reason why certain trees were uprooted and others remained 

 standing? Possibly a naturally shallow root system was the answer. This is 

 well known to be the case with willows and poplars. But by no means did all 

 uprooted trees have shallow root systems. 



After considerable study, following several leads, and visiting various parts 

 of the City, I came to the conclusion that the true solution of the whole prob- 

 lem lies in the fact that there existed tornadic wind currents within the hurri- 

 cane area. If a tree happened to stand in the path of one of these currents the 

 character of its root system mattered little. An example of one such tornadic 

 current can be seen in Prospect Park. In the Park it started at the northwest 

 corner near the Plaza entrance, snapping off a trunk of the rare Yellow-wood 

 (Cladrastis lutea) about 12 feet from the ground, and after other minor dam- 

 age it crossed the road and meadow in a southeasterly direction leaving many 

 fine trees intact on the way, but uprooting a large European Linden and two 



3 However, in talking with old residents, I find that in the old days the Garden land 

 was not as unattractive as it is sometimes pictured. 



4 Sixth Ann. Rept. of Commissioners of Prospect Park, 1866. Map opposite p. 104. Also 

 Seventh Ann. Rept. 1867. Frontispiece. "The Battle Pass in 1866." 



