I wish to submit a proposition to the Board and that its bearings may be better understood to briefly introduce it.

An important branch in the organization of almost every civilized [175] government of the world but our own is that relative to the conservation of Woods and Forests. That this subject will soon be one of great national concern to ourselves cannot be doubted. Our sources of supply for all productions of the forest are rapidly shrinking, while the demand for them on the whole is prodigiously increasing.

The cultivation of trees for decorative purposes alone is already an important business and with the growth of the country in wealth and refinement of taste will be much more so. At present a very consider-

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{dis}eases to which they are otherwise subject and even brought from an un-inhabitable condition to support a large and prosperous population.

What are the special properties by which trees act in these cases; in what degrees different trees possess these properties and under what conditions of soil, climate and culture they may be developed and made available are questions which open fields for scientific investigation of great promise and the exploitation of which is barely begun.

The chief discouragement to the scientific study of trees and the chief obstacle to their intelligent managmnt is the slowness with which individual experience is acquired. An entire life history of most of the plants we cultivate is witnessed every succeeding summer, while the natural life of our more valuable trees is extended much beyond that of mankind. Hence the value of public provisions for continuous observations upon trees and of the careful preparation and safe transmission of public records and statistics of the effects of disease, accidents, temperature, culture and other conditions upon the growth & value of trees.

From these general considerations I ask the Board to turn its attention to the opportunity offered in this respect by the Central Park.

Although so young and although it has some striking deficiencies there is no other collection on the continent of equal age containing examples of so many species and varieties.

Specemins of the greater number of them have been growing where they now are fifteen years or more and a record of the more important conditions to which many of them have been subject from the seed to their present stage of growth, the manner of their planting, their subsequent treatrnnt, the meteorological conditions by which they have been influenced, their health and rate of growth, is still possible, all having been planted under my superintendence and the more immediate supervision of Mr Fischer your present Superintending Gardener.

If the considerations which have been referred to, or the experience of all other civilized peoples should have weight with the Department, it will be regarded as a matter of some national interest that such a record should be made and hereafter presented and continued. The Central Park would then form a Museum of Arboriculture arranged and catalogued suitably for profitable [176] study. Its value for this purpose would however be greatly increased by an adjunct collection of various matters illustrating the growth, management and uses of trees, with suitable books of reference.

I have, with the assistance of Mr Fischer, taken some preliminary measures toward this end, a small collection of tree sections and other material, having been made, and data collected for such a record as has been indicated.

I had last year prepared a report on the subject with a suggestion that the Board should authorize a simple and inexpensive arrangement for the furtherance of such a project as I have indicated, but the action of the Board of Apportionment and the resulting embarrassmnt which has come upon the Department in regard to all its business has led me to defer presenting it.

As the Centennial Commission of Philadelphia has recently undertaken a somewhat similar collection to that proposed I have also thought it might be best to avoid any apparent competition with it in this respect.

I have nevertheless thought it desireable to bring the subject to the attention of the Board and to ask, if it should be thought fit, that some action may be taken whereby Mr Fischer & I may be justified in quietly soliciting gifts, collecting information and speaking and writing with reference to the object as are sanctioned by the Department and officially committed to us.

Such an inchoate and purely provisional arrangmnt may prove of trifling value and may lead to nothing better but there is also a possibility that what the Department would gain and hold under it would form the necessary inducemnt to the foundation at a later period of an institution of no little importance.

To give a more definite idea of the character and value as a popular educational entertainmnt of what might be hoped soon to result, I append a form which I had prepared with a view to a public invitation for voluntary aid in the matter.

The Board of Commissioners of the Department of Public Parks of the City of New York, contemplate forming as an adjunct of the plantations of the Central Park, a collection of matters of interest relatively to Forestry, Aboriculture, and Landscape Gardening.

The collection is designed to be of a practical character with reference to the following purposes:

1st  The propogation, culture, managmnt, transportation and manufactures of and from trees and shrubs with reference to

(a)  Commodities in the form of timber, fuel, paper, cordage, dyes, gums, perfumes, drugs, clothing, food, drink, and otherwise, or (b) to their [177] use while living for sanitary and decorative purposes, as for road side planting, for screens and for landscape gardening.

A collection of illustrations is desireable for each species and distinct variety of tree and shrub, and especially of each growing in the United States, as follows:

1st  a section across the trunk of not less than 6 nor more than 10 inches in thickness. This will be ordinarily best obtained by sawing with a two hundred cross cut pit saw. Care should be taken to preserve the bark.

2d  A billet plank or board 18 inches in length, showing the grain of the wood from the heart to the bark: if valuable for cabinet work, an additional billet showing the same polished.

3d  A slab or strip of the bark. This will desireably be 1½ foot in length by 1 foot in breadth.

4th  Specemins of the fruit, nuts or seeds, and seed vessels.

5th  Specemins of the foliage;

6th  Specemins of the flower;

7th  Specemins of various forms of the commercial products;

8th  A portrait of the living tree photographed, drawn or painted.

9th  Pictorial illustrations of its landscape character singly or in groups or masses.

10th  Pictorial illustrations of various conditions and processes of treatment of the tree and its products.

11  Illustrations of its physiology and especially its diseases and their effects, and of remedies for these and their effects.

12  Illustrations of insects and vermin affecting the tree while living, of their effects and of modes of preserving it against them and of counteracting their attacks.

13th  Illustrations of insects and other agencies of destruction to its timber or other commerical products and of modes of preventing and counteracting the same.

Illustrations of shrubs of a similar character, are also desired. Where the trunk of trees or shrubs is less than six inches in diameter the sections may be 18 inches long and split sections will serve in place of billets.

Contributions to the Collection are especially desired in any of the above forms.

Those coming under the 1st 2d 3d 5th 9th 10th 11th & 12th sections will be much increased in value if accompanied by exact memoranda of facts & observations of all special conditions by which the growth, constitution and landscape character of the tree may have been affected, such as, the soil, sub-soil, climate, exposure, and situation with reference to moisture and prevailing winds of the locality in which the tree has grown. If the tree is known to have been artificially planted, transplanted, grown from suckers, cuttings, or been irrigated, lopped, pruned or grafted it is important that the fact should be stated.

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Those proposing to make contributions are requested when practicable to communicate with the undersigned before doing so, in order that an excessive duplication of specemins may be avoided.

Resolved that incidentally to the main object of the Central Park the opportunities which it affords for instruction in the science and art of tree culture and landscape gardening are valuable to the public and it is desireable that nothing which will increase their usefulness should be lost through inattention.

Resolved that the Board approves the proposition of the Landscape Architect for increasing the value of the park in this respect and that he is authorized with the assistance of the Superintending Gardener to prepare such records of the plantations of the park as may be practicable, to provide for the continuance and preservation and for such collection and arrangmnt of materials and means of information on the subject of forestry, arboriculture and landscape gardening as may be found desireable and practicable without special expense to the Department.