DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 45 



season, and a fountain basin prepared for the small plaza 

 in the centre of the park. 



WOIIK IX OTHER PARKS. 



The work in the other parks and small squares of the 

 city has consisted of their regular care, cleaning, mowing, 

 watering and caring for the trees, shrubs, flower beds and 

 fountains. 



. By an act of the Legislature of 1892, the Department of 

 Parks was made a single-headed Commission, and, by vir- 

 tue of said act, Marvin Cross, Esq., a member of the former 

 commission, was appointed by the Commissioner as his 

 Deputy. This change in the management of the affairs of 

 the Park will no doubt prove beneficial. 



It has long been known by arboriculturists that our plan- 

 tations in Prospect Park, which contained some of the 

 finest specimens of trees from all parts of the world, were 

 becoming overcrowded in many places, and in other por- 

 tions were weak. Many of the finest trees were crowded 

 out by inferior and rapidly growing trees, threatening ex- 

 termination of the better kinds. These trees were origin- 

 ally planted close, so as to produce immediate effects, the 

 designers intending to remove many from time to time as 

 occasion demanded. 



For a number of yeais they were neglected, and when 

 the time came to remove them public clamor among the 

 ignorant that "trees were being cut down and the Park 

 destroyed" deterred some of my predecessors from remov- 

 ing them. This work, under careful supervision and with 

 the advice of the best experts that can be obtained, has 

 been proceeded with during the last two years, and with 

 very little criticism, the public having begun to realize, as 

 has the Department, that the work is necessary to the 

 safety and beauty of our plantations, and in a few years 

 these trees, that are ungainly, will be beautiful and sightly, 

 and the finer specimens, which are of slow growth, will 

 survive. 



