REPORT ON TOMPKINS PARK IMPROVEMENT. 



To the Brooklyn Park Commissioners : 



Gentlemen: — Where public places in the midst of large towns 

 are not intended for public meetings, military parades, or other spe- 

 cial purposes, the motives to be served in planning them are of two 

 classes. It may be proposed, first, simply to form a cheerful, bright, 

 and refreshing object to be observed from the adjoining streets and 

 houses ; or, secondly, it may be intended to provide accommodation 

 for agreeable exercise, rest, and social intercourse in the open air, 

 for such portion of the surrounding population as may be induced to 

 resort to the ground. In providing for the latter intention, it is 

 usual to arrange trees and shady walks in the exterior parts, with 

 central open spaces of turf. Unless the ground is very large, the 

 turf spaces are not designed to be walked over or played upon, but 

 simply for the eye to rest upon, and as landscape features. To se- 

 cure the slightest landscape effect, however, a close background of 

 low verdure, as well as of high-topped trees, is necessary, and this 

 involves the planting of shrubs or underwood in the outer part of the 

 ground. 



Where this course is adopted in spaces of ground not larger 

 than Tompkins square, certain undesirable results eventually fol- 

 low, viz. : 



1st. The shrubs suffer from the shade and from drip and drafts 

 upon the soil of the trees, and, as a natural consequence, are drawn 

 up, and in a few years become poor and sickly, and cease to bloom. 



2d. The double shade of trees and shrubs, with their draft upon 

 the soil, makes good turf and herbaceous decoration also impossible. 



3d. In the attempt to mitigate these evils, the beauty of the trees 

 is often destroyed by mutilation of their lower limbs, and much labor 

 is vainly expended in attempting to renew and improve the shrubs, 

 turf, and flowers. Eesidents of houses facing the ground then 

 complain that they see nothing beyond the fence but a dull, high wall 

 of foliage. 



4th. On account of the narrow, winding walks, and the obstruc- 

 tion of vision by bushes in the outer parts, it is difficult for the guard- 



