347 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
CENTER OP GARDEN OP PREDERICK BRAHE. 
feels more like a “garden.” The illus- 
tration shown is commendable. Evi- 
'dentl_v the designer had some love for 
the "Queen of Flowers," or he was in- 
duced by the exhiliitors to provide the 
proper place for their exhibit to thrive. 
The lattice work of Professor Behrens 
■cannot be considered beautiful, architect- 
urally speaking, and if well covered 
with climbers would lose its architectu- 
ral effect if this is what the German 
des^ner pretends to show. In winter 
this kind of work adds a cold and un- 
comfortable feeling to the garden when 
stripped of its foilage. The outdoor, 
«or nature theater, of the same professor 
lielongs to the gardens of the wealthy. 
Ideal as the thought is this plan does 
not give the setting for song and music 
that one would expect for the produc- 
tion of a mid-summer night’s dream. 
Nature theaters in our delightful sum- 
mer evenings are of greater service here 
than in the chilh- atmosphere of the 
greater part of the German Empire. 
Brahe’s garden house shows more of 
the German character than any of the 
other buildings on exhibit, and the plant- 
ing scheme is closer to home than that 
of Professor Linger. 
The Henckel garden mentioned be- 
fore is a combination of garden art and 
an e.xhibit of plants by the Plenckel 
florist and nursery firm. This garden 
shows some ingenuit\'. The seat in a 
nook by itself suggests repose, and is 
charming. So is the lagoon planting. 
If Mr. Henckel’s desire was to show 
plants for sale in his commercial estab- 
lishment to the best advantage, he suc- 
ceeded very well, and in the entire com- 
position he gave the visitors something 
to feast their eyes upon. The buildings 
and stone lamps are decidedly Oriental, 
and will not be discussed here. 
Returning to the other plans, very 
little attempt is made to make the rigid 
lines subservient. Their purpose here 
Mannheim Gardening- Exposition. 
is that of playing the dominant part in 
the design. Gravel, or colored stone 
takes away the loveliness of the garden, 
and flowers are better kept out of these 
cold and uncomfortable surroundings. 
If the purpose is to create a court asso- 
ciated with the house, and not the gar- 
den, then some of the work has been 
well done, but the word "garden” can- 
not be applied to these creations. The 
Experts from the Department of 
Agriculture in Washington have recom- 
mended the growing of potatoes or 
corn in - Central Park, New York, in 
.order to rehabilitate the worn out soil 
in the city’s great pleasure ground. H. 
J. Wilder and Howard S. Reed, soil ex- 
perts of the bureau of soils in the De- 
partment of Agriculture, have prepared 
a report on the condition ' of the park 
soil from which we quote the following; 
"The park is beginning to suffer some 
deterioration in soil conditions as the 
inevitable result of keeping a single va- 
riety of vegetation growing for some 
charm of the meadow or forest border, 
whether in a naturalistic or architectural 
way, is absent. 
Concluding, we should see the hand- 
writing on the wall, accept what is good 
and fitting, and discard what is unfit 
and useless. Better still, study our own 
conditions and develop something that 
harmonizes with our climate and its 
people. 
time in the same locality, just as in gen- 
eral agriculture soil conditions suffer if 
a given crop is grown continuously upon 
the same field. The lawns are usually 
growing upon light soils in which sandy 
materials predominate ; these soils natu- 
rally suffer from the summer drouth. 
When grass or shrubs have been planted 
it has usually been found necessary to 
give an application of some form of 
mould. In most cases this dressing has 
not been repeated in subsequent years. 
In localities where steep embankments 
have been made the lawns have suffered 
from erosion. Proximity' of shade trees 
to the lawns is another factor which is 
harmful to the grass, inasmuch as the 
water dripping from the branches and 
flow'ing from the trunks of the trees of- 
ten contains tannin and other substances 
harmful to the growth of vegetation. 
Owing to the adverse conditions of 
the soils of Central Park, due to the 
character of the material used in the 
processes of filling, grading and regrad- 
ing, the material having been bought by 
contract at different periods of different 
men, and then covered by so-called 
mould, which has most often been a 
dark brown sandy loam, fine sand or, 
in some cases, a fine yellow sand, no one 
course of treatment should be prescribed 
as a panacea for existing ill conditions, 
and where further surface covering of 
(Continued on page XIV.) 
LATTICE WORK ABOUT GARDEN WITH OUTDOOR STAGE, 
BY PROF. P. BEHRENS. 
DOCTORING CENTRAL PARK SOIL 
