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spread southward and westward; and wilts of tomatoes and 
other vegetables and rots of plums, peaches, and grapes were 
abundant and destructive owing to the damp weather. At 
Lynchburg, a splendid English walnut tree, over a hundred 
years old, was attacked by a fruit blight which practically de- 
stroyed the crop, the ground being covered with blackened and 
worthless nuts. In the vicinity of Washington, seventeen-year 
locusts had been abundant, especially on the oaks, and many 
trees used in decorative plantings had been rendered very un- 
sightly by the death of twigs where eggs had been deposited. 
Fortunately for us, this insect seems to have skipped Manhattan 
and The Bronx, although singing this season in twenty states. 
About seventy students of the Columbia Summer School 
visited the Garden on the afternoon of August 8, under the 
leadership of Mr. L. W. Crawford, Jr., and were escorted through 
the grounds and buildings by Drs. Murrill, Howe, Barnhart, 
and Pennell, of the Garden Staff. 
Chicago is soon to have, on the outskirts of the city, the most 
beautiful and extensive botanical gardens, or arboretum, in the 
world. The Cook County board of forest preserve commissioners 
decided yesterday to utilize a part of the forest preserve for this 
purpose. It is likely that 2,000 of the 4,000 acres of the Palos 
preserve district, southwest of the city, will be chosen as the site. 
Already a garden spot, with its deep wooded ravines, its high 
bluffs overlooking the Desplaines River valley, and its great 
stretches of green prairie, the Palos district offers a nucleus, in 
the opinion of the board, from which may be made a scenic 
marvel where the scientist may revel in botanical wonders while 
the layman revels in its beauty. 
The site, recommended by a subcommittee, of which Prof. 
Henry Cowles of the University of Chicago and Prof. Chas. B. 
Atwell of Northwestern University are members, is already 30 
per cent. complete, scenically. As trees, shrubs, and flowers from 
other parts of the world are added, they will be planted in accord 
with a comprehensive scheme of landscape gardening. 
