The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-09
BRANCH BROOK PARK
Ingenious Machine to Pro-
mote theGroWth of TsEees
Received Last Week,
IT'S TRANspLANTiNG POWERS
Larger the Trees The Easier the
Job-How The Instrument
Works.


Sunday Call there was hauled into the
stable yard at the new Branch Brook
| Park the queerest looking vehicle that
was ever trundled through Newark
streets. 1t had two sets of wheels a good
distance apart and a low platform be-
tween. Attached to the hin6raost axle
was q long, narrow contrivance consisting
of two narrow pieces of wood Joined to-
/ gether at intervals with strips of wood,
the latter followed out as il to receive
some sort of a cylinder. You could, for
instance, lay Il telegraph pole in this
hollow place. or groove. OF course the
pole would extend beyond the contrivance
at both ends, but if would nevertheless
rest in the groove as a cradle. The butt
end of the pole would rest on the low
| platform between the two sets Of wheels
and the other would extend behind the
vehicle parallel with the ground and a
little higher than the rear axle from the
ground. There was a seat over the front
axio and a pole for two horses in front
and that was the whole makeup, without
going too deeply into details.
In some ways this machine, for such
it truly is, is more wonderful than nature
herself, for it steals a long, long march
on the old dame and by its agency man
may turn a bare bald hillside into a
thicket or a grove in a month instead Of
waiting for nature to putter about the
job for years and then produce but a
seraggly growth of saplings. The vehicle
is nothing more than a tree transplanter,
and with it You can move trees full eigh-
teen inches in diameter and fifty feet
high. It is called the St. Patrick's Tree
Carrier, and it cost the Essex County
Park Commission about $3.50.
The machine arrived at Branch Brook
Park on Tuesday or Wednesday, and was
put in operation at once. 1t will save the
Commission hundreds of dollars, as it
can now remove trees from one. section
of its own property to another. and there
fore will not have to pay for their trans
portation from other sections. nor will it
nave to buy them. But more than this,
with this machine it will be possible to
cover the entire park with trees in a few
months of two or three years, and with
trees of very respectable size, too. This
is away and ahead of the natural pro-
cess. Naples and el1ns that so about the
business of growing very soberly and de-
lfberately may be whisked from their
native heaths and made to rear their
stately heads in bare and hitherto shade
less places in the space of a few hours.
Visitors to Branch Brook Park, and they
flock to the place by hundreds on q pleas
ant Sunday, nave one and all complained
that the pleasure grounds looked bare and
fat without trees. In a year or so they
will have no cause for such complaint,
thanks. to the st. Patrick's Tree Carrier,
which has been tried and found to be an
unqualified success.
A Cali reporter was shown the new
machine by Gardener Theodore Holocek,
at the request of Secretary Church on
Friday. The gardener is delighted with
the new machine with which he was ia
miliar before ever he came to preside over
the flowers. and shrubs at Branch Brook.
He knows just what it Will do and he is
satisfied that it will assist him immeas-
urably in fastening the Identifying Of the
park. The two sets of wheels can be de-
tached from each other, and this is done
when the WOrkrnen are ready to trans
plant a tree. The tree has first been de-
tached from the earth with a great bah
of it's native earth around the roots. The
size of the bail varies with the size of the
tree. of course. The tree being detached
the hind pair of wheels of the Tree Car
rier are trundled up to the tree. The long
narrow part that rests on the axle and
has a groove, and which we will call the
cradle, is now turned. Ordinarily it rests
on the axle parallel to the ground. Now,
by means of a cog and ratchet arrange
ment the cradle is raised to the perpendi-
CdAd1 L iC = Stet4S Ao v pen AAS I. tlAC
tree trunk and it is moved close up to
the trunk until the latter rests against
the groove in the cradle. Cloth bandages
have been placed around the tree at the
points where it is to come in contact with
the frame work of the cradle. so that the
tree Shall not be chafed. There are stout
chains attached to the cradle at the points
where the latter touches the tree, and
these chains are now passed about the
trunk and made fast. There are two
chains, and when they are tight the tree
is swung over, resting in the cradle until
il rests parallel to the earth. The larger
the tree the easier the JOB. strange as it
may seem. for a big tree balance itself
better in the cradle ard is swung out of
the hole so much the more readily.
Begging has been placed about the ball Of
earth in which the roots are ineased, and
the bagging is made fast with cords and
ropes. Now the front wheels of the Tree
Carrier are backed up TO the tree and the
platform attached to the front wheels is
so close to the earth that it is very easily
brought under the ball of the tree and
rests securely on it Two iron bars are
made fast to hooks in the bottom of the
low platform. The whole eontrivanee is
now fastened together and off it goes to
the place where the tree is to be in
stalled. AT this place a hole has been dug
and the loam gotten ready. The front
wheels Of the machine are now DETACHED
hole. The cradle is now raised to the
perpendicular and he tree is dropped gen.
tiy into its new home. Another reason
Willy kto 49, s~S<S tRS etftA@ -
tie ones is that little ones have branches
low down and these ranches interfere
with the tree resting in the cradle.
On the Clifton avenue side of Branch
Brook Park, near the storage reservoir
buildings, is the Essex County Brewery.
1t is just across the street from the park
and it towers high in the air. The Com
mission has long wished that the brewery
might take itself hence, but as the brew
cry has evinced no intention of departing
it has been necessary to devise some
scheme whereby the brewery might be
made to dominate the view from the park
less imperiously than it does at present.
So an embankment has been made on the
mark side of Clifton avenue. directly OPP
posite the every. 1t is quite a hill and
slopes upward from Clifton avenue for
some distance. On the other side of the
hill or embankment is a solid masonry
wall which the masons Of the city made
such a fuss about some weeks. ago as
not being properly constructed. This wall
is an Imposing piece of work as it is now,
but it is to be hidden with vines and
shrubbbery until it becomes a beautiful
green bank. Strollers in the park will
Be unable to see the brewery for this
great bank of greenery, and thus the
brewery is shut out.
On the other side Of the masonry, on
the hillside. in other words, trees are now
being planted to soften the bare outline
OF the hill and to make it really attrac-
tive to the eye. The new machine is play
ing an important part in the tree planting.
as might be guessed. Small trees and