I have just received yours of the 7th inst. and am chagrined and disappointed beyond expression by its news.

You will remember that in reply to repeated warnings and injunctions I have been constantly assured that you would see to it that sufficient funds were retained to employ this fall as large a force as could be desirable in the planting and finishing operations which have been so long postponed and the postponement of which has been to me such a grievance. There can possibly have been no work done within the year in which the necessary amount of money could be spent as desirably or anywhere near as desirably. The amount required is not large and I hope you will strongly protest for yourself and for me against its being used on Fillmore Avenue or anywhere else or in any other way which to prevent the work in question from being done. And if the money cannot be otherwise obtained I hope that you will find something that can be sold to raise it. All the buildings and furniture that we have been spending money for are simply a disgrace to us if money is wanting to provide what they are intended to serve in the park itself.

If there is no other way I shall try to have a statemnt made to the public and a popular subscription asked to repair the blunder.

As to the clearing out of the trees on the “line of sight” and the adjustmnt of the trees and shrubs along the North shore of the lake, employ all necessary men the moment the season admits of its being done and have it done without fail promptly and well. What cannot be otherwise paid for I will pay. I would not for twice all it can cost let it be neglected another year. If there is any obstacle to your doing this let me know at once.

As to the cold frame, all you positively require at once that you have not ready at hand is a sash or two of glass. Can’t you borrow this? If not why not board up one of the windows of the boathouse and take it from that? You might restore it in May. I suppose that oiled cotton supported on lath might tolerably answer your purpose.

Of course we have now to go through a period of extravagant cutting {and} paring. Its your business and mine to guard by every ingenious contrivance we can bring into play against penny-wise pound-foolish waste of the property under our care until sound economy can again be steadily sustained. You are in a first rate position to run under short sail for a time and let the public overtake you except for your planting. Strain every nerve to accomplish what you have so often promised to do in this before next winter. You can manage to do nearly all without purchasing. Willow and poplar trees cost you [230] nothing. The great point is to get every man and boy at work that you possibly can; to anticipate the usual planting season and let nothing draw you off from the first moment you dare begin, until the ground freezes. André told me that in Paris they had done a great deal of successful planting with the leaves on the trees. It is only necessary that the transference should be rapid; that the roots should not at all dry.

Can you not reduce wages? Can you not employ two boys in place of one man? Can you not let your watchman’s duty be neglected and apply the wages saved to trees? Can you not screw some work out of your licensees? Can you not abandon all maintenance work? It will be only a temporary inconvenience if the roads & walks suffer ever so much. Don’t spend a cent on watering except it is to save the life of trees which ten years hence will be more valuable than those which the saving would enable you to plant. Leaves evaporate so little from this time out that I should take the risk in almost every case, no matter how great the drought. If you can put the whole of your 12 men from this time out strictly at the work & let everything else go, and if the season is prolonged you can get everything done that was proposed except the screen, the gathering of seeds &c. and some part of the shrubbery and vines for which last you can at least start cuttings. Can you not exchange trees for shrubs? Is there no nursery man who will contribute what you specially need on a statement of your necessities? Please write me often and fully and I will help you in any way possible.