BROOKLYN PARK COMMISSIONERS. 



picturesque character of rural scenes, of which the visitor's 

 mind has retained a pleasing remembrance, is one of the high- 

 est aims of the landscape architect. 



To this end every effort should be made to subordinate or, if 

 possible, eliminate the anomalous and unharmonious features 

 of street activities and the incongruities of city architecture. 

 With these objects in view it will be readily seen how import- 

 ant it is to lose no aid in which a proper care of so valuable 

 an adjunct to the resources of park design will afford. Having 

 at our own disposal but limited means for carrying on the work 

 of adjustment by pruning and thinning and transplanting, so 

 necessary to a proper modification of the Park plantations, we 

 shall seek to repair, so far as possible, the effects of delay of 

 former years. Our plantations, as described in former reports, 

 comprise a large variety of both deciduous and evergreen 

 material applicable to and forming a necessary feature of park 

 adornment. Their growth everywhere has been vigorous, and 

 their development has reached a point where readjustment in 

 important particulars is of the first importance in order to 

 secure the objects for which they were planted, and to give them 

 pleasing and harmonious relations to the surrounding landscape. 

 Overgrowth and crowding has modified many important features 

 of the planting, and has threatened destruction to much valu- 

 able material which, next .season, ma} T be saved and transferred 

 to other portions of the Park. It must be remembered that the 

 work of caring for and refining the essential part of the park 

 design is necessarily restricted to two brief periods of the year, 

 and the labor required for its accomplishment, by reason of the 

 skill and care with which such work should be done, is costly. 



The notable storm of the 21st of January, which consisted of 

 rain and sleet, and was followed by a very low temperature, all 

 within the space of ten hours, produced a phenomenally destruc- 

 tive effect. upon the trees and shrubs in the parks. These were 

 so weighted down with ice upon every branch and twig as to 

 seriously damage many valuable plants, some of them of large 

 growth and beautiful development. It also injured many 



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