15G 



But it may now be said that the progress of construction on 

 the western drive is entirely arrested, and cannot be resumed 

 without encroaching, to a ruinous extent, upon the beautiful 

 meadow south of it, which forms one of the most attractive 

 features of the design. The Commissioners cannot believe that 

 the people of Brooklyn will ever consent to so serious a mutila- 

 tion of the plan as is implied by such a course of procedure, 

 and they therefore propose to suggest these considerations to 

 the Legislature, at its coming session, trusting that their re- 

 newed application will meet with a more favorable response 

 than has hitherto attended their efforts in this behalf. "When 

 this addition shall have been made to the park area, it will, 

 in their judgment, be sufficiently extended on the western side 

 of Flatbush avenue for all useful or ornamental purposes, and 

 will contain over five hundred acres of land, or, if the parade 

 ground is to be included in the estimate, as it is already in the 

 general design, about five hundred and fifty acres, conveniently 

 located and easily maintained, and now rapidly approaching 

 completion, under the plastic hand of the landscape architects 

 employed by the board. 



No plan for the improvement of that portion of the park 

 lying east of the avenue has yet been suggested, which is en- 

 tirely satisfactory to the board ; but the subject has received, 

 and will continue to receive, their studious consideration. In 

 all adaptations of land to public use they have kept steadily in 

 view what they believed to be the requirements of a rapidly 

 growing city, of greatly diversified tastes, pursuits and habits ; 

 while they have not been unmindful of the expense of main- 

 taining a large pleasure ground, after its completion, in that 

 high degree of order and of neatness which are indispensably 

 necessary to the accomplishment of its best purposes. The lay- 

 ing out of this portion of the park, divided as it is by a large 

 public reservoir, and isolated from the rest of the park by a 

 broad thoroughfare, presents a serious difficulty in harmonizing 

 these discordant features with the general park design, which 

 have been adverted to in a former report. But the Commis- 

 sioners are now able to state that extensive plans of public im- 

 provement, bearing directly upon this section of the park, 

 and having for their object a system of more ample and 

 convenient approaches thereto ; are in progress, and will 



