only knowledge for knowledge's sake, but also knowledge for practical use.

While careful attention will be given to those trees of commercial value which will grow in New York State, yet the variety of conditions presented by the topography of Letchworth Park will permit of demonstrations with a wide range of tree life, and thus give the arboretum a National as well as a State value. The arboretum will, therefore, contain representative specimens of as many genera of hardy trees in North America as can be maintained there.

But the Letchworth Park Arboretum will be more than a collection of interesting specimens. Mr. Price, the Forester, says:

"The great arboretums, like the one at Kew Gardens, near London, are simply living herbaria, collections of trees from all over the world planted singly, or at best in small and open groups; and while they are very instructive to the landscape gardener, and exceedingly charming to the casual observer, they have no important bearing upon the problems of practical forestry, for the behaviour of trees growing in the open is totally different from the behaviour of trees growing in a forest. It would be quite as unwise to draw conclusions from individual trees standing alone, as to the size forests of the same tree will reach in a given time and the quality of the product they will furnish, as it would be to base conclusions regarding the habits and life history of the buffalo which used to cover our Western plains by the millions, upon observations made on an individual representative of the species

at a zoo.

"At Letchworth Park will be planted not single trees, but a forest. This forest will contain, when the work is done, every important commercial tree which can be grown successfully in that locality. So as this experiment ripens, the farmer who thinks of reforesting his denuded lands, or the forester or the forest student with problems in forest planting to work out, or the average man with an earnest interest, as more and more average men are coming to have, in the practical aspects of forestry, will find at Letchworth Park a rich field for observation and for study. Here the visitor will be able to pass quickly and easily from miniature forests of one species to those of another; from a forest of tulip trees from the South to one of Engleman spruce from the Rocky Mountains, or silver fir from Germany, or of a hardy pine from distant Korea, possibly of the deodar from the Himalayas - a veritable menagerie, not of animals or even of trees, but of forests."

The group system will be followed, by which the trees will be arranged according to their mutual relations, in blocks of an acre or more each, trees of one family found together to form divisions bounded by roads and paths. From the trunk roads, other roads will run in various directions, forming branches from which will ramify paths giving closer access to the different groups. At some point in each division will be a tablet giving the scientific and common names of the specimens. Facilities for the investigation and study of the growth of the species will be provided, including a library of the principal literature on the subject. In these divisions will be grown naturally affiliated wood-plants and wild flowers.

The Arboretum was begun on a modest scale by Dr. Letchworth several years before his death, and the Park already has the record of trees planted either by himself or by distinguished visitors, as far back as forty years ago. These trees are carefully labeled and catalogued. There is also some primeval forest in the Park, although the greater portion is second growth.

In addition to its topographical conditions, the atmospheric conditions at Letchworth Park are unusually favorable for an arboretum. It is more favorably located, in this respect, than the Kew Gardens, which are affected by the smoke and vapors of the great city of London. Indeed, no arboretum in or near a large manufacturing city can thrive as it should. The nearest large city to Letchworth Park is Rochester, sixty miles away, and the atmospheric conditions are ideal for an arboretum. It is an unusual combination of circumstances, therefore, which presents. this unusual opportunity for developing a beneficent gift in a practical and useful way of far-reaching importance.

Engagement of Forester.

The Society has engaged as Forester of Letchworth Park Overton W. Price, of Washington, D. C., one of the best known foresters in the United States. He is a graduate of the Forest School at Munich, Bavaria, and his training in forestry was acquired both by study in this country and by nearly three years' work abroad, under the direction of the late Sir Dietrich Brandis, former Inspector-General of the Forests of India. Mr. Price was for

ten years Associate Forester of the United States, and has been an active factor in the conservation movement. Gifford Pinchot, former Chief Forester of the United State, has expressed his deep interest in the Letchworth Park Arboretum and his willingness to aid in developing its fullest capacity for public usefulness, and George B. Sudworth, the eminent dendrologist of the United States Forest Service, has generously consented to aid the work by his counsel.

Work of the Past Year.

The work at Letchworth Park during the past year has been in the direction of adapting it to the uses of a public park. Notice has been given to the lessees of the farms that the leases will not be renewed. Some of the roads have been widened and the loop drives enlarged so as to make them safe for automobiles. Barbed wire, board and stump fences, partly down and all in bad condition, have been removed. Some of the fences were of such a nature that they afforded a refuge for snakes and their removal was necessitated by that reason. Many trees, partly down, some of them thrown over by the movement of quicksands, have been leveled. The hedge surrounding the formal garden near the residence, which was in a dying condition, has been removed. The lawn space, thus enlarged, will further be enlarged by the removal of unnecessary sheds in the rear of the garden. In the Letchworth residence a new bathroom has been installed. At the Council House Grounds the board fence has been taken down, and the frame chalet, which had been moved from another site to the end. of these grounds by Mr. Letchworth some years ago, has been removed to open the vista toward the Mary Jemison monument and the log Council House. Many other smaller details for the physical improvement of the park have been attended to.

Mr. Price has already begun preparatory work on the Arboretum. He has personally examined the territory and taken the preliminary steps for mapping the park. Measures have been instituted for the collection of seeds and seedlings for the first planting, and also to put the Arboretum in touch, by correspondence, with the leading authorities on forestry subjects in this country and abroad. The Society has had one donation of fifteen thousand seedlings, representing sixty different species.

New Railroad Station.

An arrangement has been made with the Erie Railroad Company for a new railroad station, to be called Letchworth Park, at the west end of the viaduct. At present Letchworth Park is reached from three different railroad stations. Portage station on the Erie road is at the east end of the viaduct over the Genesee River, just outside the park. A visitor arriving at that station must walk over the narrow footpath on the railroad viaduct at a dizzy height to reach the path or road in the park itself. The next station on the Erie road northwest of Portage is Castile, from which the park is reached by a drive of about three miles. Portageville (not to be confused with Portage), is a station on the Rochester branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, from which the park is reached by a circuitous drive of about two miles. The new station will therefore be of great convenience.

United States Meteorological Stations.

In January, 1912, the United States Weather Bureau in Washington, D. C., established in the park two co-operative meteorological stations. The lowest temperature recorded since the establishment of the stations was fifteen degrees below zero, in January, 1912.

United States Geological Bench Mark.

In the same month, the United States Geological Survey acceded to our request to establish a bench-level in the park, stating that such a mark would undoubtedly be of great public interest.

Genesee River Company Dissolved.

In our former reports we have referred to the Genesee River Company, which was incorporated to build a dam on the Genesee River, and which designed to build it above the Portage Falls, partly in Letchworth Park, and thereby divert the water from the Falls. The company was originally chartered in 1898. Section 20 of the act of incorporation provided that unless within five years from the passage of the act at least 10 per cent. of its capital of $3,000,000 was "expended on said work of construction, the

said corporation shall be dissolved." The five years expired April 29, 1903, without compliance with this condition. In 1906, after a lapse of three years, the company secured the enactment of chapter 688 purporting to extend the time limit to July 1, 1911. In July, 1911, Attorney-General Carmody brought action in the Supreme Court to dissolve the company upon the ground that it had not complied with the terms of the charter. The defendant defaulted in pleading and the Attorney-General moved for judgment, which was granted by Supreme Court Justice Chester at Albany on November 11, 1911.

Application for Dam at Portage Denied.

On June 16, 1911, the Hon. Milo M. Acker, Hon. John A. Sleicher and Hon. Robert H. Fuller, a majority of the State Water Supply Commissioners,* filed an opinion denying the application of the Board of Supervisors of Monroe County for the approval of plans for a storage dam at Portage under the terms of the River Improvement act. Something of the history of this application and its bearing on Letchworth Park is given in our Sixteenth Annual Report (1911) at pages 49-59. The opinion of the State Water Supply Commission, which would make about eighteen or twenty pages of this book, is of great interest, and may be summarized as follows:

This matter came before the Commission upon petition of the Board of Supervisors of Monroe County under chapter 734 of the laws of 1904. Preliminary investigations were made and maps filed in the offices of the clerks of Monroe, Livingston, Wyoming, and other counties in which the properties affected lay. Hearings were held, notably those in Rochester in the early part of 1911. There were many appearances in behalf of the water power and other interests which expected to be benefited by the dam and reservoir. The opposition was represented by Deputy Attorney-General Henry Selden Bacon, representing the AttorneyGeneral of the State of New York; several representatives of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, in behalf

* The State Water Supply Commission was abolished and its powers transferred to the newly-created State Conservation Commission, by chapter 647 of the Laws of 1911, which became a law July 12, 1911.