April io, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



141 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. S.\ 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Article ; — A Notable Park Project in New Jersey i^i 



A California Brook Side. {Witti figure.} 142 



Scotch Pine in the West Pj-o/essor Ckarlcs A. K^ffcr. 142 



Exhaustion of Soil by Trees 142 



The Kerosene Attachment for Spraying Pumps. (With figures.) 



Professor E. S, Gojf. 14^ 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. PVatson. 144 



Plant Notes 146 



Cultural Department;— Seasonable Work in tlie Flower Garden, 



£. O. Or pet, T. D. Hatful J. 146 



Nicotiana affinis f. N. Gerard. 147 



Strawberry Leaf Curl Professor Byron D. Halsted. 148 



Rose, iVTarchioness of Londonderry E. O. Orpet. 14S 



Early-tiowering Perennials IK P. 148 



Correspondence: — i'he Opening of the Fire Season in Minnesota A. 14S 



The Cherokee Rose ' D. F. L. 148 



Foresh-y at the IMichigan Agricultural College Professor IV. J. Beat. 14S 



Recent Publications 140 



Notes 149 



Illustrations : — Reservoirs for water and kerosene attached to force-pumps, 



Fig. 21 143 



Improved air-chamber of spray-pu.Tip, Fig. 22 14:1 



View on Chico Creek, Butte County, Cali.fornia, Fig. 23 145 



A Notable Pra-k Project in New Jersey. 



BEFORE this article is published the people of Essex 

 County, New Jersey, will have decided at the polls 

 whether Ihey will approve of the law passed by the last 

 Legislature of the state, authorizing the expenditure of 

 §2,500,000 for public parks, and at this writing there seems 

 to be practically no opposition to the measure. The nat- 

 ural way in which this public sentiment in favor of parks 

 has been developing for the past twenty years, until it has 

 at last blossomed out into this actual and practical effort, 

 is a most auspicious beginning for the enterprise, and the 

 absence, so far, of any suspicion of self-seeking in the 

 enterprise by any clique or any interest, is an additional 

 encouragement to all its well-wishers. The fact that 

 Newark city is not alone interested, but that the entire 

 cluster of cities and towns within the large and populous 

 county are to be united in the project, establishes a novel 

 precedent in the history of public parks, and since Essex 

 County has little debt the tax will be no burden, while the 

 valuations of property facing the new parks and parkways 

 will be sure to advance sufficiently to more than pay for 

 the improvement. 



It is fortunate that the movement has assumed this com- 

 prehensive form and that active measures are to begin at 

 once, for not only the city of Newark, but the Oranges, 

 Montclair and other growing towns of that region are 

 spreading out over the country at such a pace that in a 

 short time there will be no rural scenery left for popular - 

 recreation. Even now, although the townspeople can 

 ride out to hills on various trolley lines for a single 

 fare, they have little opportunity to come into contact 

 with unspoiled nature, for their walks must be confined 

 to the country roads. Of course, they are shut out from 

 the woods and fields owned by private persons, and, on 

 the other hand, the suburban residents are beginning to 

 complain of annoyances by these throngs, especially on a 

 bright Sunday. It is time, therefore, that some of the 

 beautiful scenery should be set apart and devoted to public 

 use forever. The rolling country in the northern part of 

 the county, the equally beautiful region of wooded hills on 

 its southern border, to the east and west of Short Hills, not 

 to speak of the magnificent slopes of the Orange Mountain, 



with its unrivaled prospect, including the harbor of New 

 York, offer park land of the most varied and interesting 

 character, and all accessible to a population now counted 

 by hundreds of thousands, and increasing with marvelous 

 rapidity. 



The new Park bill authorizes the expenditure of two and 

 a half million dollars, under the administration of five com- 

 missioners to be named by the Justice of the Supreme 

 Court of that circuit, and they have full power to condemn 

 land, to receive gifts, to take charge of the necessary road- 

 ways, to provide a system of maintenance, to assume con- 

 trol of existing parks, and, in short, to do all that is neces- 

 sary in a park system in the way of construction and 

 management. There are considerable spaces of land 

 already held by the cities and towns which will be in- 

 cluded in this park system, comprising old reservoir sites, 

 lands taken for taxes, ancient commons, gores of land at 

 intersecting highways, and the money authorized will suf- 

 fice to secure land for three or four largeparks in different 

 parts of the county — one, perhaps, on the Orange Mountain, 

 one near the flat Newark meadows, where there is a large 

 factory population, one on the rolling lands west of the 

 Passaic about Belleville and Fi'anklin, and another still 

 to the south, perhaps in the vicinity of Waverly, where the 

 land is also rolling and where there is some water. In 

 addition to the greater park areas and the smaller parcels of 

 lands already possessed, the funds will suffice to secure 

 connecting ways, playgrounds and all the open spaces 

 actually needed, and, besides this, it is believed that many 

 public-spirited citizens will make donations of land where 

 it can be used to round out and complete the park system. 

 If we were asked to make a suggestion to the commis- 

 sioners whom Judge Depue is to appoint, we should say 

 that since these parks are situated in different parts of the 

 county, and each one is surrounded by a population with 

 distinct characteristics, the sites should be chosen not 

 only to meet special needs in each case, but they ought to 

 be selected as component parts of one comprehensive plan, 

 so that each one shall be a complement to all the rest and 

 furnish attractive features not offered by the others. Be- 

 sides this, the usefulness of these parks would be greatly 

 enhanced if broad roadways could be secured to connect 

 them with each other and with what are to-day different 

 cities, but which will be within a few decades different sec- 

 tions of one great city. In this way the practical park area 

 will be largely increased, and the property along these 

 parkways will be greatly enhanced in value, for the most 

 inviting place of residence in the county will be found 

 along their lines. 



And this leads to another suggestion, which is, after all, 

 the one of prime importance. Any park will lose half its 

 value, and often more than half its value, unless it is pre- 

 pared by a skilled designer. No man would think of erect- 

 ing a building worth two millions and a half without employ- 

 ing the best architect who could be secured, and the parks of 

 Essex County will cost much more than that amount before 

 they are completed. Therefore, a skilled landscape-architect 

 — an artist who has demonstrated his ability to cope with 

 all the problems presented in a work of such magnitude as 

 this— is essential. Morever, the time to call him into con- 

 sultation is before the ground is bought It is a well-known 

 fact that has been proved over and over again in the his- 

 tory of parks in all the great cities of the world, that 

 if the designer is called in after the land is bought, he 

 finds certain approaches and modifications of boundaries 

 necessary, and the cost of what is needed afterwards to 

 finish out the whole^into a perfect picture is often nearly 

 as much as the cost of the original land, because of the 

 suddenly enhanced value of the property adjoining the site. 

 AfterCentral Park was bought and the plan was made, it took 

 nearly half a million dollars to buy the small square at 

 Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, known as the Plaza, 

 which was needed as a vestibule to give the great pleasure- 

 ground some dignity of approach and entrance. The 

 proper way, therefore, is to invite the trained park maker 



