October io, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



401 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building. New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EoitoR'AL Articles : — Landscape Art and the Harlem Speedway 401 



Forest Fires 402 



The White Ash. (With figure.) 402 



Horticulture in Kern Valley. California Charles H. Shinn. 402 



Native Trees and Shrubs about Montreal, Canada.— Ill J. G. Jack. 403 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 404 



Plant Notes 406 



Cultural Department: — Autumn-flowering Perennial Plants. — I. 



Robert Cameron- 406 



Orchid Notes . E. O. Orpet. 407 



Forcing Tomatoes IVillia m Scott. 407 



Chrysanthemums T. D. Hatfield. 408 



Lime for Chrysanthemums William Scott. 408 



Gloriosa superba J N. G. 408 



( W. C. Egan. 408 



Correspondence :— When to Transplant Conifers \ Robert Douglas. 408 



( Jackson Davison. 40S 

 Exhibitions: — The Horticultural Institute held at Fredonia, New York, 



E. G. Lodeman. 400 



Notes 410 



Illustration : — White Ash, Fraxinus Americana, in Pennsylvania, Fig. 64 405 



Landscape Art and the Harlem Speedway. 



WE have more than once referred to the extraordinary 

 action of the Park Board, in this city, in giving out 

 contracts for a driveway along two miles of the shore line 

 of Manhattan Island, without consulting their own profes- 

 sional adviser, or any other artist of recognized skill in 

 designing parks. Our readers have been informed that 

 eminent artists, speaking for the associated architects, 

 painters and sculptors of New York, and every newspaper 

 which represents the cultivated public opinion of the city 

 protested against this shameful waste of an opportunity to 

 make a riverside parkway, which, in its beauty, availa- 

 bility and adaptedness to varied public use, would be one 

 of the most valuable of the city's possessions. After many 

 delays and much discussion, in which the commissioners 

 have made it plain that they do not possess even an ele- 

 mentary idea that anything in the nature of design is 

 essential to the proper development of a public pleasure- 

 ground, they suddenly, at their last meeting, passed the 

 following resolution : 



Resolved, That this Board, at its next meeting, appoint a 

 landscape-gardener for the speedway, and that all applicants 

 file their testimonials with this Board in time for that meeting. 



It was announced also that these applicants would be 

 required to appear in person at the meetings of the com- 

 mittee. 



It is charitable to assume that the Park Board is acting 

 in good faith ; that its members are really endeavoring to 

 make tardy amends for their neglect to appoint a designer 

 in the beginning, and for their refusal to accept the counsel of 

 their own official designer. But if they imagine that they 

 are complying with the spirit of the request made by the 

 Municipal Art Society and others, and that they are disarm- 

 ing public criticism by doing the right thing now after so 

 long a delay, their resolution shows an astounding igno- 

 rance of their duties as trusted custodians of the city's 

 property and a boorish incapacity to appreciate the functions 

 and responsibilities of a landscape-gardener in the broad 

 sense of the term. This resolution proves that here are three 



reputable citizens who cannot be made to understand that 

 expert ability, taste and skill deserve some consideration, 

 nor that an artist of training, experience and reputation in 

 designing public parks ought to hold a different posi- 

 tion as related to such works and to the officers who ad- 

 minister them from that occupied by a day laborer. What 

 the people want, what the people have a right to demand, 

 and what it is the business of the Park Board to supply is an 

 artist of distinction whose name will stand as security that 

 the work done for the city will be worthy of the city. If 

 a new municipal building were to be constructed, even a 

 park commissioner would admit that it might be well to 

 entrust the work to an architect who stands in the front 

 rank of his profession. No one but a park commissioner 

 will contend that a rule equally rigid ought not to be ob- 

 served in selecting a designer for a public pleasure-ground, 

 which will cost much more money than a building, and 

 be put to daily use by many more persons. Whether 

 or not the men who will appear before the Board on 

 Wednesday will be artists of the proper rank it is hardly 

 necessary to inquire. It would be hard to. imagine one of 

 the leading architects in the country — say, one of those 

 who aided in designing the buildings of the Columbian 

 Exposition— standing, hat in hand, before the Park Board, 

 presenting testimonials of his competency from his last 

 employer, and replying to President Clausen as that official 

 cross-questions him to find out how much he knows about 

 architecture. 



No doubt, there will be applicants enough for the place, 

 and many of them may be worthy men, but the very fact that 

 they appear as applicants will prove that they do not rank 

 with the leading designers of parks in the country. Plenty 

 of so-called landscape-gardeners can be found who will 

 bring testimonials from some gentleman or lady to the 

 effect that they know how to make lawns and plant shrub- 

 bery. But here is a picturesque river-front two miles long 

 to be treated, and provision to be made for the popula- 

 tion of the largest city on the continent who will throng 

 thither to witness some spectacle on the river or on the 

 road. The place calls for a man who knows how to do some- 

 thing beyond the laying out of flower-beds. It is true, that 

 contracts have already been given out, but the work will 

 never satisfy the people of New York until these contracts 

 are revised. No one can be trusted to meet the problems 

 thus presented except an expert in designing public works 

 of this character who can confidently assume the responsi- 

 bility of rectifying mistakes, if any have been made. The 

 city asks not only for a man whose reputation will be a 

 guarantee of the best work, but for one whose self-respect 

 will allow no interference within his special field. 



Just at this point lies the consideration which makes 

 this more than a local issue. Here is a fundamental rule 

 which must be established, not only in this city, but in 

 every city of the country, if our parks come up to the full 

 measure of their usefulness and their beauty. A park 

 commissioner has nothing to do with matters of design. 

 He does not make profession of any skill to build a park, 

 or a bridge, or a statue, or a monument, but it is his busi- 

 ness to select men for technical work who have proved 

 that they have this skill, and whose judgment should be 

 treated with deference. No one would listen to the advice 

 of Mr. Clausen or Mr. Strauss in relation to a parkway 

 and its surroundings if this advice was opposed to 

 the judgment of Mr. Olmsted or Mr. Vaux, who have 

 furnished examples of park work that have never 

 been excelled. Let us hope that there is no other city 

 in the country where a resolution like the one we have 

 quoted above could have been passed by a park board. 

 But if there is such a city we may be sure that the park com- 

 missioners there appreciate neither their duties nor their 

 privileges ; that they have no conception of what can be 

 accomplished by artists of genuine creative faculty; that 

 they utterly lack that inbred and instinctive deference to 

 trained and cultivated ability which is an unfailing mark 

 of truly civilized society. 



