The Famous Busch Gardens 
of the hill. This was laid out with 
boulder-bordered walks, carefully 
planned masses of shrubbery, running 
brooks and miniature water-falls. 
Around the nearer hill swept a con¬ 
tinuation of the macadamized walks in 
the first garden, under a number of 
magnificent live-oak trees. Then came 
the purchase of the land right in the bed 
of the arroyo itself and the determina¬ 
tion to push the garden clear across the 
valley. Steps were taken to preserve 
the giant sycamore and other trees 
which grew in profusion in the bed of 
the arroyo and by stone and cement 
walls to guard the improvements against 
the flood of water which occasionally 
in the rainy season rushes down the bed 
of the arroyo with furious force. 
As the dream came toward realization 
new difficulties arose. But whenever 
they blocked the way the brewer waved 
his magic wand of good American gold 
and they faded away. Now and then 
a small property owner evinced a desire 
to “hold up” the garden-maker. Land 
values flew up to the ceiling. Mr. Busch was never parsi¬ 
monious, always liberal, but when he concluded that he was 
“being played for a good thing,” or in other words imposed upon, 
he was like a rock. Witness a little tract of five or six acres which 
projects into one side of his wonderful park and for which the 
owner demanded fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Busch 
refused and bought the land only when its price dropped to what 
friends of both parties considered fair and reasonable. 
Water for the garden chain was secured from a local private 
company. The water toll reached finally to over a hundred dollars 
a month. At times it was not of good pressure or particularly 
abundant. Occasionally consumers complained of his lavish use 
of the common supply. His agent suggested a private pumping 
plant as a solution of the difficulty. Mr. Busch told his agent to 
go ahead. Eleven acres of land, right in the path of the city’s 
growth, land supposed to be water-bearing, was purchased and 
a well sunk.[ 'Abundant water was found at bed-rock, 120 feet 
TERRACES IN THE BUSCH GARDENS 
LIVE-OAK TREES IN THE GARDENS 
from the surface. An automatic pumping plant costing $10,000 
was erected with an eight-inch pipe to the Busch property half 
a mile away. Now the gardens have all the water they can use 
There are two tanks at the pumping plant, each holding eighteen 
hundred gallons of water. In these tanks a seventy pound air 
pressure is maintained. When this pressure drops to fifty pounds 
the pumps begin automatically to work. The well and pumps are 
believed to be capable of supplying at least one hundred miner’s 
inches of water. This means water for irrigation, water for 
running fountains and brooks and falls and fish ponds, as much as 
is desired. 
But to return. The gardener continued his work with every assist¬ 
ance. At the present time a score of expert helpers are at work 
planting, pruning, trimming, watering, extending. It is said that 
the work of extension already laid out will take years to complete. 
In the newer section are wild fowl of various kinds, in the babbling 
brooks are native and foreign fishes, on the rocky ledges climb 
half-wild mountain sheep. Rustic seats 
are placed wherever needed throughout 
the gardens, the new section alone being 
never opened to visitors. 
Three days a week, the gardens 
which now cover thirty-five acres, are 
open to the public without restrictions 
for several hours. At other times the 
gates are kept rigorously closed. When 
the gates are shut the great brewer ac¬ 
companied by his secretary or by mem¬ 
bers of his family wander at will over the 
grounds or sit under the trees. Surely 
no monarch ever had more delightful 
breathing spaces around his royal pala¬ 
ces than are these. 
Every flower, every shrub, every tree 
has its label, telling its common as well 
as its scientific name, the whole afford¬ 
ing the student an herbarium of unex¬ 
ampled extent and variety. 
Visitors are wont to comment won- 
deringly upon the vivid green of the 
lawns around the house and over the 
garden terraces. To such the gar¬ 
deners and public carriage men gravely 
59 
