422 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 348. 



place from the family physician or the veterinarian, his true 

 field being the study of diseases as they appear, with the 

 testing of remedies and the dissemination of the knowledge 

 thus obtained. He would, therefore, be of necessity a pub- 

 lic officer, to whom samples of diseased plants could be 

 sent for diagnosis, or he might be sent for at some point 

 where there is a severe outbreak of a new disease. The 

 experiment stations in all the states fairly fill this position 

 now by correspondence, bulletins, etc. With the informa- 

 tion thus obtained, every gardener may in time become his 

 own plant doctor under ordinary circumstances, and when 

 any new disease appears he can obtain the needed assist- 

 ance from the stations. 



Now, there can be no question as to the immense value 

 of the investigations which have been made by mycolo- 

 gists in recent years. Many orchards and vineyards in 

 this country, in which no fruit could be raised on account 

 of some infectious disease, have been restored to health 

 and productiveness, and the most dreaded foes of many 

 field-crops have been practically vanquished. It is to the 

 painstaking researches of botanists that the true character 

 of such diseases as the black-knot, the apple-scab, the 

 grape-mildew and the potato-rot has become known, and 

 the discovered facts have been so widely disseminated, and 

 the curative treatment of these maladies has been made 

 so plain, that they may be fairly considered under control. 

 There can be no doubt, either, as the years pass on, that 

 the work of the vegetable pathologist will be of still greater 

 importance. But, after all, it is plain that the therapeutic 

 treatment of diseased plants will never furnish an occupa- 

 tion at all analogous to the practice of medicine either 

 among men or animals. In the first place, the symptoms 

 of plant-diseases are not so sharply defined, nor are these 

 diseases so quickly affected by medicine as are the diseases 

 of men or animals. A fruit-grower might never suspect 

 any trouble with his apple-crop until it was past cure. 

 Even if he suspected a disease he would be inclined to 

 delay and trust to luck or the weather, especially when he 

 can get no distinct proof to establish his shadowy appre- 

 hensions ; but if his child were ill he would at once send 

 for a physician, and if his horse were injured he would call 

 in a veterinarian, provided the doctor's fee is warranted by 

 the value of the horse. The veterinary surgeon may visit 

 the horse every day, or several times a day, and make as 

 many charges as he makes visits, and when he kills or 

 cures his horse he can get his fee just as the physician can 

 who treats the ailing child. But if the vegetable patholo- 

 gist is called to see an orchard or a bench of Carnations 

 he would not be expected to call again the next day and 

 see how his patient is doing, and in this way the plant- 

 physician could rarely make a sufficient number of calls to 

 support him as a veterinarian is supported by a number of 

 small fees. When a child is ill the physician is not able to 

 carry a piece of him away for examination at leisure, for 

 the delay may mean death ; but very frequently a plant- 

 doctor would need to carry away some material from the 

 diseased plants for investigation. Such investigation re- 

 quires a great deal of time, a well-equipped laboratory and 

 many assistants. Most people would hesitate before they 

 would pay a competent man for the study and work that 

 might be required to find the disease and apply the needed 

 remedy to a bench of Carnations or a field of Potatoes. 



What might be done is suggested in some of the letters 

 to which we have referred. The farmers or fruit-growers 

 in a certain district might unite to employ a salaried expert 

 to investigate and advise them just as certain large brew- 

 ing companies employ a botanist on a salary to examine 

 their yeast and see that it is pure. But there is no analogy 

 between the position of such an expert and that of a doctor 

 of medicine. Another suggestion is that if agriculturists 

 and horticulturists cannot learn how to treat their plants 

 for the ordinary diseases of crops, a class of professional 

 sprayers could be educated in the methods of mixing and 

 applying fungicides, but these would not be physicians, 

 but rather nurses, who would follow out the prescription 



of the plant pathologist. There seems, therefore, to be a 

 field for these two kinds of salaried experts, vegetable 

 pathologists and practical germ destroyers. But Professor 

 Taft's idea that every gardener will in time become his 

 own doctor is not a wild one. The experiment stations and 

 agricultural colleges have taught farmers a great deal about 

 animal husbandry, particularly about the proper rations to 

 feed for milk or for meat or for work. From the same 

 sources farmers have learned much about fertilizers, and it 

 will hardly be thought that they need soil doctors to cure 

 their enfeebled acres. In the same way farmers' sons 

 ought to acquire sufficient skill to administer ordinary 

 remedies to ailing plants, and surely the time ought not to 

 be far away when graduates of agricultural colleges will 

 be able to distinguish fungous diseases and know practi- 

 cally what to do for them. When a new disease or a new 

 insect begins its ravages the stations or the colleges will 

 always be ready to furnish the needed advice. 



Corlears. Hook Park. 



SOME years ago an act was passed by the Legislature 

 of New York condemning the land in this city lying 

 south of Cherry Street and extending from Corlears Street 

 on the east to Jackson Street on the west, and devoted it 

 to public use as a park, which was to be known as Cor- 

 lears Hook Park. This square contains nearly ten acres 

 of land, and was originally one of the most densely popu- 

 lated portions of the city. After many delays the buildings 

 have been removed and the money has been appropriated 

 to construct a park on a design by Mr. Calvert Vaux, Land- 

 scape Architect of the Department of Parks, which we 

 produce on page 427. It will be observed that there are 

 entrance-gates on the east and west opposite Front Street 

 and Water Street. Between these pairs of gates moderately 

 direct walks have been made to take the place of the present 

 street lines in such a way that the general movement to 

 the east and west will not be impeded. To guard against 

 crowding, these walks are spacious, being eighteen feet 

 wide at the narrowest point. The broad walk near the 

 water-front with a concourse, marked A B, where seats are 

 arranged under shade-trees, is an interesting feature for 

 visitors who use the park simply as a pleasure-ground. A 

 large greensward area is left open in the central section of 

 the park, and another, but smaller one, to the north of it. 

 The borders of these areas of turf will be planted with 

 shade-trees, such as Lindens and Elms, and seclusion from 

 the street will be secured by lines of leafy trees, like Maples, 

 along the outer boundaries, and among them strong-grow- 

 ing shrubs of such kinds as will thrive in densely peopled 

 portions of the city. In the south-west portion of the park 

 an area, C C, of somewhat oval form and one hundred and 

 fifty feet long, has been arranged for a shaded playground 

 for the children, and an area about the same size in the 

 opposite corner, marked D D, can be used for the same 

 purpose, if it is needed, and, if it is thought desirable, a 

 music-stand can be erected at the point, M. Near the 

 northern boundary lavatories are provided, and the upper 

 parts of the structure, 6 1 T, can be arranged for use as an 

 outlook, giving an agreeable view of the park and the river 

 beyond. The street-trees on the surrounding curb line are 

 about fifty feet apart, and they are arranged, it will be 

 observed, so that there is no tree at either of the exte- 

 rior angles. It has been found that trees at such angles 

 are much more liable to injury by horses and wagons when 

 turning corners sharply than at any other point. 



The people of this part of the city are to be congratulated 

 on the prospect of this opening among the tenement-houses 

 with its bit of verdure. It is the only park facing the East 

 River, with the exception of the little Rutgers Square, be- 

 tween Jeanette Park, which lies near the Battery, and the 

 interesting East River Park, which is rather larger than 

 Corlears Hook Park, and extends northward above 

 Eighty-fourth Street. The river in front of the new park 

 broadens out to include Wallabout Channel, so that 



