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BUSSEY FARM AND ARNOLD ARBORETUM.

The park-way from Jamaica Park to Forest Hills Station, on the Boston and Providence Railroad, skirts the eastern border of the Bussey Farm, near that portion set apart by Harvard University for the Arnold Arboretum. The purposes of this arboretum are, that all the trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, either indigenous or exotic, which can be raised in the open air at West Roxbury, shall be collected and planted, and each specimen labelled.

An admirable beginning has been made, under scientific direction, and it is understood to be the intention of the University to develop its trust as rapidly as its means will permit, by collecting and so disposing the plantations as to render them, in the highest degree, instructive and interesting to students and the public.

The University not having perfected its plans, the Commissioners have deemed it advisable to temporarily delay locating any lands or ways within this superb estate (containing over 300 acres), other than the park-way mentioned above; but they are of the opinion that all the rights of the city and the University can be fully protected, greatly to their mutual advantage, by the Commissioners taking lands for walks, drives and open spaces, under the terms of the. act, and policing the same, and the University making and tending the plantations as required by its trust.

The cultivation of specimen trees and plants, and scientific farming, can be carried on to any required extent, upon the arable lands of the estate, by the University, and yet leave large tracts of the most picturesque scenery, unfitted for those purposes, to be used by the city for a park.

It would seem that by the co-operation of these two interests, both purely of a public character, though quite independent in ownership and administration, the objects sought for by each would be directly benefited.

AUSTIN FARM, WEST ROXBURY.

Whether the present City Council shall decide to authorize the taking of lands under the Park Act or leave the subject to its successors, it is the opinion of the Commissioners that no time should be lost in preparing material for plantations. Large supplies of trees and shrubs for borders of streets and park-ways and the planting of parks will be required in the early stages of the work, which should be grown in quantities from seeds or young plants, by the city, at a minimum

cost, instead of being purchased in the markets. Material so produced will be thoroughly acclimated, and will show better results immediately and permanently than when grown in distant and various localities.

The Austin Farm, containing fifty acres, the property of the city, adjoins the West Roxbury location, and is well adapted for the purposes mentioned.

The Commissioners recommend that the farm, unless absolutely required for other purposes, be placed under their control by a deed of trust or otherwise, as may seem best to you, to be used as a nursery for trees, plants and shrubs, required for the use of the city, with the proviso, that no material grown be sold or otherwise disposed of, unless by exchanges in kind, to any parties, public or private.

To supply the parks of Paris and environs, the government possesses four extensive nurseries, one each for evergreens, for deciduous trees, for woody plants and shrubs, and for annual bedding plants, where trees and plants are raised in vast quantities, costing, from the bedding plants, a few cents per hundred, to well-grown, healthy trees, thirty feet high by a foot and a half in diameter, four dollars each. These last are transplanted with balls of earth about their roots, as has been successfully done in the New York Park, and elsewhere in this country.

Of bedding plants alone several millions are produced annually, with which the gardens and promenades of the city are lavishly decorated at a trifling cost, thereby cultivating among the people a correct knowledge of and taste for natural colors and forms for which the Parisians are preeminent in all the modern arts.

A portion of the farm can be set apart for a Zoological Garden, either temporarily or permanently, to be open to the public, under proper regulations, as is done in New York and Philadelphia and many foreign cities.

Other parts, not immediately needed for the nursery while the plants are young, can be temporarily used for play and picnic grounds. If this recommendation meets your approval, the preparatory work should be entered upon at the earliest practical moment.

BROOKLINE.

The town of Brookline, though nearly surrounded by, is not yet a part of, Boston; but this condition has only in the single instance of the Brighton Park-way seriously complicated this portion of the work of the Commission, as there exists no difficulty in connecting by natural and inex

pensive routes, throughout Brookline, the Brighton Park with Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury Parks, and the general system, whenever, within a reasonable time, the city and town authorities should desire to co-operate to this end.

COLUMBIA AND BOSTON STREETS, IN DORCHESTER.

The Commissioners recommend that these streets be widened to one hundred feet, and planted with malls on each side of the roadway, to form an avenue of the first class, from the junction of Columbia street with Blue Hill avenue to the junction of the proposed extension of East Chester Park, at Five Corners, with Boston street, about two miles in length, and connecting the West Roxbury and South Bay Parks.

This avenue, so improved, will be the approach from South Boston, and a large part of Dorchester to the West Roxbury Park. It will be an important section of the circuit from the Charles-river Embankment via Back Bay, Jamaica, West Roxbury and South Bay Parks, thence by East and West Chester Park to Charles-river Embankment again, a route of about twelve miles.

ESTIMATED EFFECT OF COST ON TAXES.

The area of the city is, in round numbers, 22,000 acres, of which 211 acres, or about one per cent., are at present public pleasure-grounds; the additional acreage in parks and park-ways located under this act is about 1,100, or five per cent. of the whole area, at an estimated gross cost for land and buildings thereon amounting to three-fifths of one per cent. of the assessed valuation of the city, real and personal for the year 1875.

The immediate influence of the large expenditure required for taking lands as located, upon the rate of taxation, would be approximately as follows:

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thus increasing the rate of taxation thirty-six cents on $1,000 to raise the same relative tax.

In this statement nothing is allowed for the increased tax accruing from the increased valuations of estates directly

benefited by the location of parks adjacent thereto, which will, judging by the experience of other cities, at once favorably modify the rate of taxation, soon offset the entire increase, and then permanently reduce the general average.

NAMES OF PARKS, ETC.

The names used in designating the various locations are adopted for the convenience of this report only.

For your convenience, four large maps have been prepared, as follows, one showing the Charles-river Embankment, Back Bay and Parker Hill Parks. Scale, 150 feet to the inch.

Brighton Park and Chestnut-Hill Reservoir. feet to the inch.

Scale, 200

West Roxbury Park and connections. Scale, 300 feet to the inch.

South Bay Park and surroundings. Scale, 100 feet to the inch.

A detailed account of the expenditures of the Commission accompanies this report, marked "Appendix A.”

In making the location herewith presented, the Commissioners have sought the professional advice of Mr. Fred Law Olmstead, upon the general scheme, rather than upon the minor details. His experience and success in similar undertakings in several cities have made him an authority throughout the country. The assistance they have thus received enables the Commissioners to offer the plan herein presented with a degree of confidence which they otherwise would not feel.

They also desire to make their sincere acknowledgments to the large number of fellow-citizens who have aided them in the prosecution of their work. While some have, perhaps, been warped in the expression of their views by personal interests, not necessarily incompatible with the public good, it has been gratifying to observe that the far greater number have been influenced solely by an earnest desire that this proposed great public improvement should be so executed not only as to satisfy the citizens of to-day, but also be regarded in future years, when the population of Boston shall have been doubled and quadrupled, as a priceless inheritance.

Respectfully submitted.

T. JEFFERSON COOLIDGE,
WM. GRAY, JR.,
CHARLES H. DALTON,

BOSTON, April 24, 1876.

Commissioners.

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