The present menagerie of the Department has become what it is by successive desultory steps taken with no view to permanence or completeness in any respect. It is so placed as to be a serious injury to the Central Park; it is ill arranged, ill equipped, not adapted to economical maintenance. Under these circumstances, though closely, prudently and skillfully managed, it adds a weight to the annual appropriations for the Park which tends unjustly to the public discredit of its administration.

The existing objections to it will be more obvious as its slight wooden buildings fall more and more into disrepair. The cracks and openings caused by the shrinkage, decay and warping of timber in them are now so many and so large that after another year, should an extraordinarily severe winter occur, it will be hardly practicable to keep the tropical animals alive, unless considerable and expensive rebuilding is undertaken. The Board can, therefore, not long hold to a waiting policy with respect to it, but will be compelled to adopt some radical measure.

Still more unsuitable and economically indefensible, except as makeshifts, have been all the arrangements hitherto employed by the Department for purposes such as are met by the well-known Floral and Exotic Public Gardens of Europe.

The Park Commissioners of different periods, always expecting that some permanent and well-arranged plan would soon be carried out, have tentatively entertained two radically different classes of projects, one having in view the management of the proposed gardens by the city direct, the other the management of them by an association especially formed for the purpose.

With reference to the first class, four different localities have been successively appropriated; plans adopted suitable to them, and twice operations [359] have been begun in carrying out these plans. Each of these appropriations has at last been reconsidered, and all of the plans abandoned. With reference to the second class, numerous organizations have been undertaken, and two have been so far matured as to obtain special acts of legislation, but no one has been able to secure such concessions, assistance, and privileges as its promoters thought necessary to success, and all are now defunct.

During the last three years I have been asked to report upon five projects, some of one of these classes, some of the other, on neither of which has the Commission as yet taken definite action. As the subject is likely to be further agitated during my intended absence, I propose at this point briefly and without extended argument, to state certain general conclusions which, in my judgement, may be wisely adopted.

1st.  New York demands advantages corresponding to those found in the acclimatization, zoological, botanic, and horticultural gardens of other metropolitan cities.

2d.  The best way to secure such advantages would be one in general accordance with the policy which has been heretofore adopted, and which is already, to a certain extent, in succesful operation in the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

3d.  This policy would lead to a contract between the city and a society, for the purpose, under which the city would give the society the use of land and aid in obtaining buildings and collections, while the society would give the public the use of the same at certain times, gratuitously, and at others in payment of moderate admission fees, and would undertake the current expenses of the enterprise.

4th.  Botanic or exotic gardens need to have many of the same plants and the same appliances as zoological gardens. A zoological garden, as generally managed, is, to some extent, a botanic garden, and each of the propositions for a zoological garden, now before the Department contemplates a combination of botanic and zoological interests.

In view of the difficulty which has been experienced in raising the necessary capital to start either a zoological or a botanic garden on an adequate basis, and in view of the objections to inclosing any more of the area of the Central Park than is necessary for the purpose, it is not wise to contemplate, at present, two or more distinct gardens—one for zoology, others for different branches of botany or floriculture—each to be aided by the city.

5th.  No garden of the kind proposed could be established on the Central Park without taking away from the public advantages for which a high price has been paid. Nowhere in the middle parts of the park, nor on its southern borders, could such a garden be placed without great waste and disastrous results. Not even on its more northern borders could any body of land be taken for the purpose which would not be found cramped, and, in some respects, inconvenient—requiring large outlays to make it satisfactory.

6th.  On the other hand, no garden of the class contemplated [360] would be likely, for a long time to come, to make adequate returns through admission fees, if situated much further north than the Central Park.

7th.  Under all these conditions, the Department would be justified in providing, whenever it shall be found practicable by the method proposed, for the more immediately useful, attractive, and popular departments of a combined zoological and botanic garden upon the Central Park, taking land for these purposes in which the buildings could be so arranged as not to break up the broader landscape scenes, and recovering for the Park the land now occupied by the menagerie.

8th.  But it is desirable that, in addition to this, that the Department should designate some considerable tract of suburban land as a public ground to be specially reserved for an arboretum and horticultural garden, and, perhaps, other scientific uses in the future. Suitable land for such a purpose may be found in that portion of the new wards, the plans of which remain to be determined.

9th.  Having in view a Zoological and Botanic garden to be situated in the Central Park, which would compare favorably with the best in the world in respect to popular entertainment and instructiveness, though lacking space for scientific completeness, a site should be sought within which a considerable extent of surface would be found (1) an exposure to the south, (2) protection from northeast, north and northwest winds, (3) perfect drainage, (4) ample flowing water supply, (5) direct association with a considerable pond or broad body of water, which would lie within the same enclosure.

10th.  The only ground in other respects available where these advantages are offered in the Central Park lies on the west side of the Park, south of the great hill, from Ninety-sixth to one hundred and fifth Streets. A garden might be found to which this locality would be central, containing from twenty to thirty acres, in which the necessary buildings and fences of a zoological and exotic garden would be inconspicuous, if not wholly invisible, from any part of the park proper. No other equal space of ground upon the park could be taken for the purpose of a zoological and botanic garden with less sacrifice of advantages for the proper general purposes of the park.

In conclusion, I beg to urge that if the Commission is of opinion that it is necessary to appropriate some portion of the Central Park to a zoological garden, and any association can be found, having public interests in view, like the existing organizations managing the Natural History and Art Museum, and not looking to pecuniary profits, which is able and disposed to assume due responsibilities in the matter, it is very desirable that negotiations with a view to the lease for the purpose of the ground I have indicated, should be entered upon at an early day.