BROOKLYN PAEK COMMISSIONERS. 43 



study of Art, Botany, Entomology, Ornithology, <tc . , have been 

 issued to the number of four hundred. The park is also a 

 favorite resort for amateur photographers, to whom about 300 

 permits have been issued. 



If, besides maintaining the park as a living panorama, de- 

 lighting the eye of the visitor with green fields and woods, 

 and combining in the varied scenery that " pageantry of 

 Nature " so pleasing and restful to the eye of the beholder, it 

 has been good policy to afford opportunity to all classes of our 

 citizens to follow the pursuit of recreation and instruction in 

 their own way, wherever consistent with the public interest, 

 the Commissioners in the administration of their responsibil- 

 ities, have made no mistake ; otherwise, they probably stand 

 open to conviction as to what should constitute the scope and 

 aim to be attained in regulating the public use of the park. 



SMALL PAEKS. 



Of the small parks of the city, Fort Greene, the largest in 

 extent and most important, has been generally maintained 

 through the year in better condition than last season. An 

 increase in the keeper force has tended to relieve the park of 

 the presence of many undesirable characters, who often sought 

 to annoy visitors when not directly under the supervision of 

 the keepers. 



The park seems to invite by its convenience of access the pil- 

 grimage of a number of worthless characters, whose course of life 

 is made up of journeys to and from the county jail. They give 

 us a great deal of trouble, and their frequent arrest imposes 

 responsibilities upon us from which the city police should in 

 part relieve us. If, too, the police justices were less lenient in 

 disposing of such cases the public interest would be benefited. 



During the year considerable pruning was accomplished, 

 and the more massy plantations were reduced with general 

 advantage. Some of the broken surfaces upon the interior walk 

 lines were repaired at a cost of about twelve hundred dollars, 

 but there is still a considerable portion of the walk surfaces that 



