The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-08-10
A PLANT MENAGERlE
Essex County Park Commits
sion's Free Nursery at
Weequahick.
OYER 40 600 BABY PLANTS
Set Out Last May at a
Cost Of s2,ooo.--All
Sorts of Shrubs.

The war has since early spring iahen
49, a++ant;on Of the people of Essex coun-
tv so completely that they have had no
mind for lesser matters. and it has seemed
next to useless to attempt to lhterese
them in anything else, no matter OF no"
preat importance it might be. says the
Newark Sunday CALI" A man mas just
about SO much time for his neWspapsi
whether there is peace or war, ana when
all that time is occupied in reading OF tne
war other affairs are neglected WINNIE
matters of minor Importance are MOI
noticed at all.
The smoke of battle and the turmoil OF
conflict seem to be dying out, anu NJ"
that the period of reconstruction IS aoous
to begin. the people are turning once more
to the themes of ordinary interest,"
so that the writer feels confident that the
readers of the Cali MAJ now learn Win
appreciation of the remarkable work ln"e
has been going on for the last lnree
months al Weequahick Park, the spot
that has been secured by the Essex Coun-
tv park Commission with a view 70 rlo-
ding 1t of mosquitoes some day by cieah-
sing the lake, and making 1t a pleasure
ground for the folk that live IN that seq
tion of Newark and the county
Tbe commission has established al Wee
n,a1,iok a tree and shrub nursery. Inere
ara IN 3. snace of six acres or Whereabouts,
4g.oO0 shrubs and trees, costing something
like 50. 600 where, up to last May, there
"a. nothing burt an embarrassing strelch
az nasture and meadow land. Here the
armv that some day is to be distributed
about the several parks in the shape OF
,,,nns Of beautiful trees, long lines OF
hedges of manifold varieties and banks OF
haw;,aarinp greenery. is being trained and
nurtured until it shall be strong enough
ana ts1, enough to fare forth. Here at the
Weeouahick nursery, this camp OF instruc-
ton, the tiny trees and the tender paoy
shrnhs are nut through their facings, and
when the drillmaster, the commahaaAt
SUPERINTENDENT Mcmillan, of the County
Park system, decides that they are nj LOT
duty elsewhere. they are to be soid on
in squads. so many for East Side, SO many
for West Side. this lot for Brancn BROOK
and that batch for Eagle Rock, the tran
sports fhe transplanting machines), VIII
draw up alongside of the nursery ana OH
will go the several details, never 10 re-
turn to the mother field, but nnder
fine s~trictest sort of orders to do their
duty. grow and thrive and make grateful
shade and pretty clumps of color, or else
die at their posts.
The common sense and sound practical
business policy which directed the estab-
lishment of a nursery by the Park Com
mission ought to be appreciated. Trees
and shrubs when far enough advanced 70
bear tr-ansplanting cost money. and con-
siderable sums have sometimes to be paid
for a single plant. 1t is much the same
with trees as it is with fowls and ami
mails. If you buy a dozen eggs, put them
under a hen and hatch chickens, your
broilers cost you much less than II you
bought them at the market, even after
you count in the expense of feeding. COST
of eggs. etc. So it is with trees; If you
buy them when they are nothing but tiny
plants, a few months old. they come to
you in boxes, ridiculously small and fraii.
like shoots of lettuce or beets, just peer
ing above the ground. You pay for the
whole box less than it would take to
transplantea an ordinary tree, very likely.
and less than a tree fairly well grown
would cost at a nursery. You have the
care of them, to be sure, and there is al
ways a certain percentage of loss. but, ex-
cept you meet with a genuine disaster,
YOU a money on the investment, and
besides you know your own trees, and
having taken particular care of them
since you are raising them yourself, you
know when you have good, sturdy, health
full growths. THUS it is with the Park
Commissions new nursery, and by this
fall several hundred young trees will be
ready for tr~arsplanting, when the super
~intendent, knowing the history of the tree
from it's infancy, will know of his own
knowledge, not by the say-so of an
agent, that the trees are really well
enough and strong enough to be moved.
Mr.. Mcmillan figures that each shrub
and tree planted in the nursery has cost
the commission about five cents. The
care put on them can cost but little, for
1t is given by men regularly employed at
one or another of the parks, and who
take a day now and then to hoe out the
rows between the plants, the heavens be-
ing depended upon for most of the neces-
sary water supply.
AS has been intimated, the nursery was
started early last May, when the war
was just beginning, mi no. one but the
men employed in laying out the plants had
time to note the establishment of so inn
portant an industry. Superintendent Nc
MILAN regrets now that the opening of
this camp of instruction was not held
two weeks earlier, for the weather has
since prove somewhat unpropitious. First
came an abundance of rain, then. about
the middle of June, there began the hot.
fiercely hot, dry spell. and beneath the
unrelenting rays of. the sun a consider
able number of the plants withered and
died. Since then things ave gone very
well, but there has not been quite rain
enough. 81 should have set them in two
weeks sooner than I did" signs the sup
erintendent, but it is no fault of his, since
it is not given him to know what the
weather is to be for three months ahead,
although that fact does not seem to lessen
his regret. Mr.. Mcmillan said o n Tues
day that the loss would probably reach
five per cent, although in walking over
the nursery. the unskilled observer would
say the loss was much less, for In the
main the plants are firm and healthy,
with rich green gloss upon their LEAVES
and their stalks strong and hardy.
To reach this nursery. this tree factory
and shrub Incubator, take an Elizabeth
car and get off at Bedford avenue, a
short distance below where you would
alight when you going to Waverly Fair
The nursery, in fact, runs close up tc
the southern boundary fence of the fail