Frederick Law Olmsted Subject File City and Regional Planning Staten Island, N.Y. 1870Staten Island Improvements. Sundry Papers. Containing Drafts + Original papers of reports subdivided by Staten Cove Reports (q.r.)Staten Island, June 29th, 1870 SIR, You with the undersigned and others are named as Commissioners in an Act of our Legislature, which we presume is known to you (it having been published, and a circular with a printed copy of the act having been addressed to many of the Commissioners), whereby such Commissioners are charged with the duty to "Prepare and submit to the Legislature a plan "for improvements on Staten Island in respect to Roads, Avenues and Parks, and means of "transportation and communication to and from said Island, and for that purpose to cause " surveys and maps to be made, and such other work done as in their judgment may be "necessary to enlighten and aid legislation on the subject, and if necessary to take testimony "and procure evidence and to make a full report recommending such legislation as they may deem desirable and expedient." This act is believed to contain the means of producing immense benefits to Staten Island if intelligently and honestly carried out, and to secure these ends, harmony and wise co-operation are believed to be indispensible. Separate meetings of Commissioners have been called and notified, the first at "the house kept by Geo. Sharpe, in the village of Richmond, July 5th, next at 11 A.M., the other at Adam's Hotel, Tompkinsville Landing, July 11th, next 4 P.M. Should these separate calls lead to separate conventions, each questioning the regularity of the other, or should those favoring the one called for the latest day, ignore and neglect each other, embarassment, confusion and total defeat of the benefits intended by the act would probably ensue. We propose to attend the meeting first called and earnestly request you to do so, to secure by proper exertions if necessary, harmonious and combined action with every opportunity and facility afforded for the due expression and representation of the sentiments of all whose action is proper in the matter. Gentlemen leaving New York at 9 A.M. for Staten Island to attend the meeting will find carriages in attendance at the Richmond Rail Road Station and also to bring them back to the Rail Road after the meeting. B. KREISCHER, JOHN ROSS, H. NICHOLAS JARCHOW, GEORGE BOWMAN, B. F. COOK, JOHN P. KOHLER, And many others.Homer Morgan Esq I enclose a circular for your friend F. L. Olstead & think it would be highly beneficial if you & he could attend at Richmond 5 July 11 A.M. G. BowmanU.S. Coast Survey Office, Washington, 1st July 1870. F. L. Olmsted, Esq 110 Broadway, New York My dear Sir, The survey of Staten Island, concerning which you inquire though Mr. Perkins was made about 1855, and represents very correctly, on a scale of 1/10000, the contour lines for every 20 ft elevation and the surface topography as it stood then. The tracings will cost $150. I enclose a specimen of the maps, and also send you by Express a proof of an unfinished chart on a scale of 1/60000 on which the contour lines are preserved, and which for general study would prove quite as convenient, if not more so, than the maps on the larger scales If you mark out in colors the contour lines of every 80 or 100 ft, you will at once get a wonderfullydistinct ideas of the forms of the island. I will be happy [r??ve] you in any way in this as in any other matter. Yours very truly J. E. [Hilg????] Assistant in chargeJuly 19 / 70 Fred Law Olmstead Es Dr Sir I promised [?] Cook to get your letter for publication & called to do so - would be obliged if you would let your clerk bring it to me Yours Geo. Bowman 25 William St Room 15 3d Story Front ____________ Law Office of GEO. BOWMAN, 25 WILLIAM STREET, ROOM 15, NEW YORK, July 19th 1870. Dear Sir I wanted to look at your letter for information on some points without waiting till I can see the presented copy - I trust there is no objection to send it to the Secretary through me Yours Truly Geo. Bowman. Fred. Law Olmstead Esq.26 1/2 Broadway New York July 20, 1870. Dear Sir. Referring to our conversation a few since on the subject of Staten Island as a locality for a suburban park, and the inducement it offers for the New York Industrial Exhibition so much discussed during the past season, I would beg leave ask your opinion as to the probable prospects for such an undertaking situated as our beautiful Island is in connection with the City, which will be appreciated by Your mo. Ob't Serv't Cha K. Hamilton Fred. L. Olmstead Esq &c &c Law Office of Geo. Bowman, 25 William Street, Room 15, New York, July 20th 1870 Dear Sir I particularly requested Mr. Cook the Secretary to have the proof sheets of your letter sent you & be particular to have the fact stated that it was ordered by the Committee to be printed. I see the letter in the World this morning without the statement & am informed by Mr Cook he could not get the proof sheets - the printer insisting it was not practicable & they could print without mistakes. He says they were particularly requested to make the statement as to the order for publication & promised to do so. However it was published in the Express a few days since that it was ordered to be published & that will appear elsewhere also. Yours very truly Geo. Bowman Fred. Law Olmstead Esq.Law Office of Geo. Bowman, 25 William Street. Room 15, New York, July 21st 1870. Dear Sir So far as I am informed the members of the Committee wish to organize to according to your ideas as far as expressed but some wish to give rather more scope than you consider necessary. I should be glad if you would look over the enclosed and see how far you can specify any objection you have by pencil in the margins or otherwise. I trust you may be perfectly free in your criticism + suggest striking out or altering part as it may seem desirable. If you can let me have the paper as early as may be tomorrowI may have time to confer with you as to any thing requiring it. The Bye Laws will of course be made to conform to the report as amended. Mr Bradley has not called on me Yours very truly Geo. Bowman Fred. Law Olmstead Esq.Law Office of Geo. Bowman, 25 William Street, Room 15, New York, July 25 1870 Dear Sir I called at Bradleys office with engrossed report & found it closed. Have sent him a note stating he can have it any moment & if not called for before 2 P.M. I will have it on the boat that leaves for Quarantine at that time Yours truly Geo. Bowman Fred Law Olmstead EsqNew York 29 July 1870 Frederick Law Olmstead Esq Dear Sir The general consideration in committee yesterday & to more than a dozen conversations would have done, your paper "On Parks" have enabled me, I think, to view your plan, if I may say so, with your eyes & to see, in some sort, how it looks to you. When I can do this, I feel pretty safe against misunderstanding. The problem for the Commision I take to be this: Given their center of population including New York Western Long Island, southern West Chester & New Jersey for twenty miles around Jersey City- a center as much a village today to what it is sure to be a hundred years hence, as New York alone was a hundred years ago a village to which all these [places?]considered as one are now - how to make Staten Island, just as it lies, begin to be come & keep becoming what it is best adapted to be, so that retaining existing advantages, removing or mitigating existing disadvantages, leaving undisturbed as far as practicable what is already established, a system of consecutive improvements shall commence in which, with as little as possible undone or to be done over, the necessary work of one year shall be the logical premise of that to be done the next & the works of all successive years, logical deductions from those of all the years preceding. This being so, your idea, as I understand it is that before the Commission stirs foot or finger, there shall be laid before it the information called for by the instructions to the five committees - just as Repton before listening to a word what or where the Manor-house should be required a minute survey showing the actual2 with every possibility & impossibility of the proposed Manor itself. And not until these Committees, simple & combined have furnished a schedule of Capabilities is the Commission to begin serious operations. I am satisfied that this is so & indeed that we cannot possibly do without these preliminary investigations. But my convictions are equally strong that systematic investigation of the nature wanted is impossible by any Committee chosen from the Commission, seen to be of heterogeneous material, of uncertain attendance, with not more than two or three in a dozen industriously acting, the rest being ready to vote down or embarrass conclusions they are too lazy to investigate or too stupid to understand. This is bad enough in one committee, but with five & a sixth the quintessence of those five all to be in some sense harmonious before the Commission can get muchgood out of any of them, the prospect is not cheering. The problem of the Commission is to ten or a dozen how to make good jobs, to a good many others, how to do the least possible at the smallest expense To others some how to open a road or avenue here or there & to make this or that ferry run faster or cheaper - some look to parks, some to avenues eighty rods apart the whole length of the Island crossed by streets every two hundred feet from Brighton to Tottenville. Some occasionally think of the problem as I have stated it, though I confess I never can without a vertigo. And I doubt if there be more than one mind, if there be one in the whole Commission so constituted & educated as to make the contemplation of the real problem with its present & far future, calm & easy. Yet unless these preliminary investigations every one of them are directed by a more or less conscious reference to that real problem, they will yield far from all the information necessary. 3 Would it not be better to refer this business of this preliminary investigation to one man to conduct & guide & report upon, with other members of the Commission to assist, having a right to dissent & to report if they choose separately but none to outvote or to control him? I think it would, most clearly. What I am about to suggest could not have originated with you in Compliance with the Committee's vote to present a plan. And I feel great delicacy in proposing it now, though I should have felt none if the measure & the reasons for it had occurred to me earlier. I do it in the hope of obtaining the best & Starting point for the Commission & the best grounds for obtaining great results. I ask your permission to submit at the next meeting a proposition discussing with all those six committee & requesting F.L.O. to perform the duties of them allassociating with him (such members as you may select) on the terms above indicated. The whole to do the things about maps &c - assigned to the Executive Committee. This or something equivalent, I should hope would meet the views of the Committee. It certainly does mine & ought not to be repugnant to yours. It leaves you in your profession & entirely unfettered. If your solution on the great problem should be adopted & prove sound Staten Island will be a nobler & far more enduring field of fame than has [hereto?] fallen to any Landscape Architect. I sincerely hope you will acquiesce in the measure being proposed. Respectfully yours Alvin C Bradley 173 13th Way New York 30 July 1870 Frederick Law Olmsted Esq My Dear Sir: I called at your office this morning, quite early for the purpose of saying that if you send me word when you should have got in I would call again. I omitted to do so, getting somehow the impression that you would not be there today. If I had left that word, it would have saved you the trouble of writing so long & me the pleasure of receiving so valued, a letter. My letter of yesterday was doubtless vague, as mine are apt to be on unfamiliar subjects. I did not mean that you & the Commissioners associated with you as I suggested2 should make a working plan of what Staten Island requires & will require. My real thought was this: that instead of committees encharged with no-quorums & the rest, you & the men you should pick should obtain the information hoped to be obtained from the five committees, you, with your professional superiority & knowledge guiding them what to [find] look for. I did not suppose the labor of this would be much if any more than if you were at the head of a single Committee. Be sure if the Committee on Water Supply & Drainage acted under your directions, they would report many things, they would otherwise have over looked. In superintending such investigations you would see possibilities of this or that to be enquired about & reported upon that I should think nothing of just as in the matter of law 3 & administration I might see something which you would overlook. In fact on this very subject, (law & administration) I have been studying for nearly twenty years in reference to the Island, & have a very full & definite plan. But of course I am not going into any Committee with it, but would give it to you or any other person who asked me. So of what. Can we not now compromise? - so that those committees if they must be committees can be selected & guided by you? - It is getting late; By the way, your paper on Parks played me a trick never played on me before during my 21 years of residence on the Island. It engrossed me so that I was carried by Factoryville landing, giving me a long walk. I will be served so again in another way, if I dont close. I will call about 10 Monday with a draft of the resolution which will 4 show what I mean. Perhaps this may be after all put under your lead, & when the time comes, "the years work" may be all in order, & no retraction upon remuneration. I thank you for the Parks & three pamphlets which notwithstanding night before last, I shall venture to look into even on the Boat. Respectfully Yours Alvin C. Bradley 173 13th Way176 Broadway N. Y. Aug 13 1870 F. L. Olmsted 110 Broadway Dr Sir At the last meeting of the "Staten Island Improvement Commision" held Aug 11th 1870 it was Resolved that a committee on Roads, Streets & Avenues be appointed by the chair consisting of one from each town, to report plans of the same to this commission at the earliest practical day, & that when such appointments were made the Secy. should notify by letter said appointees. In conformity with said Resolution - I herebynotify you that you have been appointed for the town of Southfield Yours &c B. F. Cook Secy P.S. Committee: F. L. Olmsted Southfield A. Printier Castleton J. M. Martin Middletown W.S. Hornfayer Westfield N. C. Miller NorthfieldWest New Brighton, August 22d, 1870. Dear Sir: You are hereby notified that an adjourned meeting of the STATEN ISLAND IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION will be held on Thursday, 25th inst., at 3 1/2 o'clock P.M., at ADAMS' HOTEL, Tompkinsville, S.I. Your attendance is respectfully solicited. By order of the Commission. B.F. COOK, Secretary, 176 Broadway. private. Mr dear Mr. Olmstead I have taken your name, I hope not, in vain. I proposed and carried unanimously at the meeting yesterday of the Staten Island Commission that a Committee should be appointed to consist of one from each town - of which Mr. Fred Law Olmstead should be a Member & Chairman thereofwhich 176 B'way NY Aug 27/70 F.L. Olmsted DrSir At a meeting of the [S.I. Unit on the 28th day a Resolution was passed authorizing all appointment of a committee on General Improvements consisting of five members one from each town of which you are to be Chairman You are hereby notified accordingly Yours B.F. Cook P.S. Your resignation in the other committee was accepted Martin T. AZ ABD Aug 26. 1870U.S. Coast Survey Office Washington, 6 Sept, 1870 My dear Sir, I send you today, by Express, the tracing of Staten Isd. asked for in your letter of July 27 The cost of the same, as I have before stated is $150 - please remit that amount to me to pay the draughtsman. I wish a better carmine ink had been used for the curves- it purports to be the best French [(Gugat)?] but has a very faded look. the lines serve their purpose, nevertheless . Yours very truly J.E. Hilgard F.L.Olmsted, Esq (over)I can supply copies of the printed chart to the Commission without charge. The regular price is only a dollar a sheet. The chart is still in the engineers' hands but can be printed when you need copies of it.176 Broadway N.Y. Sept. 15, 1870 F. L. Olmsted 110 Broadway Dr. Sir Yours of yesterday is at hand & in reply would say - Send me the tracing of the Coast survey map for the "S. [?]. Imp. Com." with the Invoice of the same & I will give you an order on the Treasurer of the commission for the work which he will [?] Yours [?], B. F. Cook, [?]Washn 24th Sept 1870 Fred. Law Olmsted Eq Mr dear Sir, The acknowledgment of your note & check has been delayed by my absence from this city. The appended might I presume serve the purpose of a voucher of account. Yours very truly J. E. Hilgard P.S. I have to thank you for your paper on Public Parks which I have read with unwonted interest and profit. MONDAY My dear Mr Olmstead In conversation the other day you spoke of having a specific professional charge for preparing a plan for laying out a country place or tract of land - will you let me know what such charge is and also whether you could find time to at once give attention to my place. I say at once because that essential feature, trees, of which I have too many will very shortly be stripped of their leaves. My object is not that you should undertake anychange or improvements yourself on the place but that you should provide me with a plan of the whole place about 30 ac. to which place as I may make changes all my improvements should tend. Yours very truly W Butler Duncan Sep 26. 1870.176 Broadway New York Sept 28 / 70 F. L. Ohmsted 110 Broadway Dr Sir At the last meeting of the Staten Island Imp. Com. held at No. 9 Nassau St. NY. Sept 22 [?] 1870 the following was offered by Mr Wyeth and approved by the Commission. "Resolved - that Mr F. L. Ohmsted be authorized to confer with Messrs Harris, Frowbridge and Richardson and asscertain what their services may be obtained for and that the said Ohmsted report to this Commission at as early a date as may be convenient" Respectfully Yours R. F. Cook Hwy. Secy.To the Staten Island Impv't Commission Gentlemen; A. Resolution of your Commission, looking to the formation of a Board of Experts, having been laid before the undersigned, and a statement of the terms upon which they would in that capacity undertake to prepare a general plan for the improvement of Staten Island being requested of them,they would respectfully ask your attention to the following considerations: In divising a general plan for the improvement of the island, intended to be adequate to its wants for any considerable period in the future, numerous questions will arise as to the interests of its inhabitants and before even the barest framework of a plan could be laid down, answers to such questions would have to be assumed. So, moreover, all subsequent elaboration of features within such outlines down to the last details should follow in a certain logical sequence from the answers so assumed, there is a liability to a great waste of time in proceeding far with such a plan without first knowing whether the views of policy to be embodied in it will themselves be acceptable. It is therefore suggested that the Commission should procure, first of all, a memoir in which a general scheme of a plan should be indicated; that the several propositions of the scheme so propounded should therefore be discussed by your body, and that according as its various parts shouldin the end be adopted, rejected or modified, a Bill of Instructions would be reached of a practical character, under which a plan suitable for the final consideration of the Commission, in all necessary details, could be intelligently and confidently undertaken. They also submit that until such instructions are given it would be impossible to place a fair estimate upon the value of the services which the elaboration of a plan would require In view of the considerations thus presented the undersigned offer tomake a sufficient reconnaissance of the island and to prepare an outline scheme so far as necessary to the development of the main questions of policy which most need be embodied in the plan to ultimately adopted, giving the conclusions of their own debates of these questions and explaining in what degree these have rested on grounds of a technical, scientific or artistic character. For this service they would accept the sum of twelve hundred dollars as their compensation, necessarytraveling and other incidental expenses being chargeable to the Commission. They would expect that Members of the Commission would aid them as far as practicable in procuring local information and that provision would be made for advice on questions of law if any should arise. Fred Law Olmsted (Signed) Elisha Harris J. M. Trowbridge H.H. Richardson Edgewater, October 4th 1870.New York Oct 5th 1870 F. L. Olmsted Esq No. 110 Broadway N.Y. Dear Sir Your Report to the Staten Island Improvement Commission of the 4th Inst has been laid before the Executive Com. of said Commission, and the Committee seem anxious to obtain the information which such a report promises , but they seem also to desire to hear personally from yourself, Dr Harris, Miss Richardson and Trowbridge what is exactly to be covered by this preliminary report; and to this end we ask whether it would be possible for yourself and the other three gentlemen to meet the Executive Committee some day before the next meeting of the Commission which is on the 13th Inst. If convenient the Committee would be pleased to meet you and the gentlemen named on Wednesday next at the office of MrW. R. Duncan at say 3 P. M. the 12th Inst .- Respectfully Yours &c R. F. Cook per G. Secy. W. R. Duncan Chairman Executive of the S.I. Imp. Com. AUGUSTUS PRENTICE, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, No. 195 Broadway Cor. Dey Street New York, Oct 6th 1870 F.L. Olmsted Esq Dear Sir - You gave several reports of yours to the members of the committee on S.I. improvements. I should be greatly obliged if you would loan me the same for examination I will see that they are returned within a few days. Yours truly, A. Prentice Chairman Comm on roads etc. 176 Broadway N.Y. Oct 6. 1870 F.L. Olmsted Esq 110 Broadway Dear Sir I notice by your letter of Sept 29. that you call for $100.00/100 for having the Coast survey map of Staten Island and a receipt from the U.S. Coast Survey office for $150.00/100 which is correct - please send me word and I will send you a check. Yours etc R.F. Cook [privy] Secy.[*V Staten Island dupl A*] Page 231. Oct. 10th, 1870. W.B. Duncan. P.S. If it is necessary to lay out the work of the proposed Board in any other way than by accepting its written offer, it would best be done by instructing it to make a report. Such report might be defined as follows: A Preliminary Report on the class and character of Public Works ("Improvements") necessary to the economical exploitation of the Real Estate advantages of Staten Island; including a consideration of the requirements of public health and a study of the conditions of drainage, of sources of water supply and of routes and means of communication external and internal.Nicholas C. Miller, Pres't. Capital, $200,000.00 Jas. M. Hodges, Sec'y. Assets, - $302,712.83 Star Fire Insurance Company, P.O. Box 5697. No. 96 BROADWAY. New York, Oct 14 1870. Fred Law Olmstead Esq Dear Sir I have much pleasure in notifying you of the unanimous adoption of the following resolution by the Stated Island Improvement Commission at its meeting held yesterday. "Resolved. That the offer of Men Olmstead and others contained in their communication to the Commission be accepted and that they be employed to make investigation and report to this Commission in the manner set forth in their communication Resolved. That the secretary be instrusted to send to Mr Olmstead a copy of the above resolution- " Yours Truly N. C Miller, Actg SectyEdgewater, Oct. 14th 1870, My Dear Doctor, Thank you for your very suggestive notes. I understand that the Commission last night accepted our proposition. Mr [Kirkdson?] is in Boston when he returns I will advise you & we will get together. Meantime may I trouble you with a few questions?Can we say that malarial disease never occurs except in localities near which foul & stagnant water is to be found (in notable quantity?) That malaria in all cases proceeds from foul & stagnating water? that the liability of water to stagnate & become foul is the reason why swamps the water of which is held still by bogs & vegetation rising through it, are special sources of malaria? that the lodging of water in puddles & in small poolsand reptiles under the surface of the soil, in the shore of lakes & streams especially where the depth of water in the main body has been for some time reduced by drought, is the reason such shores are sometimes specially malarious? Does a similar explanation applied to under ground currents & pools & to roadside drains &c. account for the fact that in my dry season is specialy malarious? What is that condition of water commonly called foul or ropey?Is a similar result of stagnation at a given degree of heat, possible where water is in condition of the moisture of a saturated soil ? Is this known? Can it be demonstrated? Is such "foulness" (possibly) a necessary condition, among others, of the generation of malasive person? Yours Very Truly Fred Law Olmsted.U.S. Coast Surrey Office Washington 24 Oct, 1870 My dear Sir, I have sent you today the five copies of the map you asked for. its delay being caused by the plates having to be taken from the engineers hands to be printed. Staten Island is complete except its [?] of the Marsh Let me suggest to have its sheets cut down so as to include only its required portions. have its posts placed, a border ruled and the marsh slightly [?] its roads and water likewise- they will then be of convenient size, and intelligible to the eyes of persons not trained to maps. The principal elevations might also be marked to advantage. Yours very truly J.E. Hilgard Fred Law Olmsted, Esq[*[Nov 18, 1870*] Railroads Running into New York. The census returns from the New Jersey suburbs of New York present an emphatic proof of the increasing business of New York, whose surplus population is overflowing rapidly in that direction, but nothing more clearly shows the immense increase in the general business of the country than the history of the railroad traffic in New Jersey for the decade just past. Many persons will be surprised at the statement that it is scarcely ten years since all the railroads leading through New Jersey to New York harbor from the West converged at Bergen Hill and from that point to Jersey City were dependent on the New Jersey Transportation Company. That single road was adequate to the entire railroad business leading from the West through New Jersey to New York. The Erie, the Northern, the Morris and Essex and the Central were all tributaries to the New Jersey road, and their combined traffic eleven years ago did not exceed that of the single New Jersey road at the present time. During the decade the Erie has established a terminus and ferry of its own; the Morris and Essex has reclaimed and utilized a vast tract of water front, and adopted the Hoboken Ferry for its business; the Central has filled in a former waste and established the most commodious ferry in this or any other country, and now within the short period of ten years we see what was a single avenue of traffic enlarged to four, each of which is equal in capacity and in the present volume of its business to all the roads when formerly combined in one. If we compare the respective time table, we learn that the number of trains on each road is about the same as it was on the combined roads in 1860; so that we have demonstrated the astounding fact that the railway business across and through New Jersey has increased four hundred per cent. in ten years. Much of this increase is due to the migration of New York families, who desire rural homes, and who find all that is requisite for their wants within an hour's ride from New York. The rush of emigration from the city was never so great as during the present season, and it suggests the inquiry whether the facilities for transportation are increasing in a corresponding degree. The Midland Railroad is fast approaching completion. Its course extends through that portion of New Jersey lying between the Erie and the Morris and Essex roads, which it will bring in near proximity to us. This enterprise has moved steadily on without check or hindrance, and has now reached a point where success seems certain.HUNTSVILLE, [Capt? ????,] MONDAY, NOV. 19, from Pier 13 North River, at 3 P. M. R. LOWDEN, Agent 93 West street. VIRGO, Captain Bulkley, TUESDAY, Nov. 22, from Pier 16 East River, at 3 P. M. MURRAY, FERRIS & CO., Agents, 61 and 62 South st. HERMAN LIVINGSTON, Captain Cheeseman, THURSDAY, Nov. 24, from Pier 36 North River. at 3 P. M. LIVINGSTON, FOX & CO., Agents, No. 88 Liberty st. Insurance by this Line ONE HALF PER CENT. Superior accommodations for passengers. Through Rates and Bills of Lading in connection with the Atlantic and Gulf Freight Line. Through Rates and Bills of Lading, in connection with Central Railroad of Georgia, to all points. C.D. OWENS, Agent A. & G. R. R., No. 229 Broadway, oc14tt GEORGE YONGE. Agent C. R. R., No. 409 Broadway. STEAM JOB PRINTING. Bank Checks, Bill Heads, Catalogues, Receipts, &c., PRINTED CHEAPLY AT THE OFFICE OF THE EVENING POST. EVERY DESCRIPTION OF Blanks and Blank Books PRINTED WITH NEATNESS AND DESPATCH, Corner of Nassau and Liberty Streets. ing LIBERTY---PRICE FIVE CENTS PER NOVEMBER 18, 1870. want to bang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!" I brained him on the spot and had him buried at my own expense. My uncle William (now deceased, alas!) used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had run away once, and that a good watch was good watch until the repairers got a chance at And he used to wonder what became of all [????] tinkers andRiverside Ill Nov 30th 1870. F.L. Olmsted Esq Dear Sir Yours of Nov 26th rec'd In answer to your inquiry as to the effect of suburban improvements upon real estate I would cite the property adjacent to the Riverside Parkway. Prior to the contemplated improvement (viz about January 1869) land was held at from $100 to $250 per acre (depending upon its distance from city limits) This property is held today at from $1000 to $2000 per acre. The Dr [Bebee] tract adjoining Mrs Wisencrofts was held at from $80 to $100 per acre at the time the Co began purchasing their lands- a part of this same tract has been recently sold for $1000 per acreThe Hubbard property on East side of the River & directly adjoining the north boundary line of the Co. land could not be bought for $1000. per acre-this is without any improvements or changes in the property. Real estate in Lyons has increased 100% since the commencement of the Co [opperations]. Property adjoining the West side [Pare?] (although nothing in the way of permanent improvements has as yet be done) has increased in market value 200% during the last year. Parties owning property hold it firmly because the general sentiment is that it is better to hold than to sell even at the apparently large increase on the original investment- this feeling is held to be correct by our best real estate men. I know of no suburban property in the neighborhood of any recent import that does no partake of this same general increase in value. I judge it to be a healthy condition of affairs & not inflation from the fact that no noise is made about & no one is anxious to sell & many anxious to buy. The last year has made a decided change in the character of the improvements Austinville near Harlem has during the past year replaced open ditches with pipe & brick sewers and dirt roads by [plants] & McAdam. Harlem has done the same. Hyde Park is now following but not to the same degree of completeness the improvements at Riverside the U.S.P. comp. are ready anxious to make first class improvements in the place of the contemplated temporary work. All this has had a strong and good influence upon property. The general feeling is that Riverside has become a success alone fromthe thoroughly permanent character of its improvements & as daily, people see that the Co mean to do all they promised to do the feeling is established that Riverside is a safe place to invest & live in - Had the Co done anything less than this they would have failed of success - of this I am certain - The property laid out by Hubbard at the station of Cicero \ now called (Hawthorne) stands today as it was one year ago. the roads were simply dirt rows with ditches at sides & a row of small trees on either piece - it was supposed their mechanics would try & build but as yet not a single house has made its appearance - W. B. Ogden whom I consider one of the soundest men in the country believes to the fullest extent in this principle of making through improvement in the place of the temporary one in which it has been the wont of Chicago to indulge - I send you by this same mail a plan showing all roads which are complete also lots on which houses are already built. The sewer & water pipe are laid far in advance of the completed road - On Nov 28th I succeeded in lighting up the streets & houses with gas - this you can imagine was quite a step in the progress of the plan & has done the Co more good toward impressing those who felt inclined to purchase & build with a feeling of security than anything else - We have trams running almost half hourly from 6.30 to 9.30 am. to Chicago & from 3.30 to 7.20 P.M towards Rivince - This has done a great for the [plan] enterprise - since it has rendered it more acceptable than even desirable part of the city itself - I must apologize for my negligence inso long retaining the valuable book you so kindly lent me. My movings (only eight times) have been so frequent that my books were packed & remained so until I moved in my new house - Remember me to Mr Marx - Yours most truly Ly. SchumacherMarshland Dec 2 1870 Dr Harris Dear Sir Yours of the 30th ult is received, and in answer to your inquires about drainage on my farm &c I would state that the first drains were made about 1840 more to fill up gullies and old water courses and to get rid of the stones than to dry the lands, but in the next ten years about 6 acres around and near the buildings were thoroughly drained with tile drains from 25 to 30 ft apart and dry 3 ft deep and also many wet places on other parts of the farm since then have continued to drain low and wet places with small stone until about 50 acres in all are pretty thoroughly drained: the land is certainly much improved for cultivation in every instance quickly repaying the outlay. the number of acres cultivated with plow hoe &c yearly, varies, usually about 20- In the summer of 1850 or 51 Mrs G. and one of the children had fever and ague and one summer since two of the children had it again. I do not think any person employed about the place ever was sick at all- usually have in the summer four to six workman, My Brother and his man are constantly crossing the meadow to and from his dock and since august some 4 or 5 of us have been much of the time on the salt meadow cutting, stacking and baling salt hay. You cannot err in advising thorough drainage on such land as ours for purposes of cultivation but whether that has had much to do withour good health and the certainty of the same results following a like proactive in the places will be questioned. If you make any mention of this would it not be better to include the adjoining farms and not speak of mine alone or by name With much respect Your most Ador J. C. Ganetson Marshland S. I. 176 Broadway New York Dec. 2nd 18 F. L. Olmsted 110 Broadway Dr Sir Owing to the frequent inquiries made by members of the S. I. Impror. Com. as to when the Board of Experts" or committee on "Preliminary Plans of Improvement" appointed by the S.I. Imp. Com. will be ready to report, I am directed by the President of the Commission to inquire of you whether your "Board of Experts" will be ready to report at the next regular day of meeting of the Commission which would be, (except for the adjournment) on the 8th inst. You are probably aware that the Commission adjourned to meet at the call of the chair whose action will depend on the time you are ready to report. Wence this inquiry is made so as to give the Secy. ample time to notify the members of the Commission. Respectfully Yours &c R.F. Cook [?] Secy.New Brighton Dec. 11th My Dear Mr. Olmsted As it is highly probable that the samples of water, - good & bad, - which prof. Chandler will analyze for the Commission, may aid in the final decision & popular approval of the people in favor of the water-reserve grounds I& all attendant projects, I beg you to advise me concerning the requisition I should make for the analysis. Shall it be a qualatitive or quantative analysis, like those for the [?????]-pol Bd of Health? (see last two Annual Reports.) I would so advise. Further, would you advise me to have a fair sample of well water taken from Richmond Terrace or Clinton Ave. (or Bard ave.) wells to show the contrast with the purer water of the water-reserve valley? The 2 samples from that valley are "soft" & quite certain to prove superior to the Croton : One was from Mr. Standings Spring - a branch in fact of his mill-pond filtered through the gravel rim of the pond; & the other sample was taken yesterday by us in the Main inlet of [Kitchen? S?] mill stream. Your well will exhibit a want of purer supply on the Edgewater side, & we can make a similar exhibit, though of rather purer water I think on the N Brighton slope at a point where population will be most dense & wealthy. I hope you will feel authorized to request me to have the samples analyzed in the manner mentioned, & at an expense not to exceedfifty dollars. The standard price for each full analysis is $25 per sample ; but I recommend Economy in our scientific work, & Prof C. has offered to aid us. He will not be informed of sources of samples. Truly Yours E. Harris To F.L Olmstead esq Chairman of Commission &cNew Brighton Dec. 22d. My Dear Mr. Olmsted: Everything I have endeavored to put into shape has held such relations as to make it necessary for me weave the threads consecutively. The statistics concerning property & population for comparisons I cannot master before Wednesday next, I fear. The exact history of Augusta, Ga. is sure to come; & the record of the Stud-farms drainage &c., promised. Truly yours E. Harris. F.L. Olmsted; Chairman, &c. [*NB The sewage questions will be ready in condensed form on Friday.*] [*Special.*] Present State of Knowledge & Theories Concerning the Essential Nature of the Poison which is termed Malaria. Though the actual, i.e., the chemical & physiological, nature of every fever - poison whether contagious or not, remains yet undetermined & in great uncertainty, the local & general & special circumstances & changes by which they are produced & rendered active are very well understood & defined. The malarial fevers, so called, are quite as well understood & defined in respect of their causation, as can be said to be true of any of[* Theory of Malaria opinions*] fevers & chief diseases which affect the human body. Theories are but the scaffolding by which we may aid in arranging the elements of a great final structure of truth. Every theory is liable to be cast aside as too partial, incomplete, or inconsistent for the ever advancing state of medical & physical knowledge. But there is much in the examination of the best theories concerning diseases, & particular in respect of malarial fever & its cause. The latest & best supported theories are two in number, so though both may be at the same time true - simply factors of a whole - each is seperately about equally as well supported as the other, but , if Prof Buxleys doctrine of protoplasm or Prof Beales hypothesis of "geminal matter" in morbid conditions be actually ultimate truths, it is probable that the medical & philosophical conclusions concerning malaria will be shaped so as to accept & define in better terms the meaning & force of the common opinion that decaying or rather vegetable matter, plusa certain condition & relation of water evaporated therefrom & therewith from porous grounds or stagnant waters, constitutes the malarial poison. But, in the present state of physical knowledge & by the closest methods of logical analysis the cryptogamic waters - origin of malaria appears most plausable & consistent, & it best answers all practical purposes at present. This theory does not stand in the way of the one before mentioned [* 4 special*] & if the former should be proven true, it still would be found that the organic or phyto-pathological hypothesis constitutes an essential factor of the ultimate truth of the methodes patholigicum in respect of malarial diseases, - for cryptogamic organism is inevitable associated with all morbid protoplasm, if we can speak of such crude knowledge by such a name. The highest medical & philosophical authorities are pretty nearly agreed that the only well defined cause of malaria & malarial diseases, must be an actual organism, probably phytic rather than zöoic. Dr. David Drake was the first to enuciate & defend this hypothesis; & Prof. J R Kitchell of Phila. was the first to write fully upon the subject. From physical phenomena & [?ologies] those eminent philosophers ventured to deduce the organic [hypothesis] or "vegeto- animalular hypothesis. In more recent years Prof Pasteur, DuBarry, Hallier, Niemeyer & others have written & spoken with great assurance in defence & explanation of this hypothesis, Dr Niemeyer, of Tubingen, very fully expresses the opinions of the gentlemen here referred to, by saying, as he does in his recent volume, "I have no hesitation in saying decidedly that marsh miasma - malaria - must consist of some vegetable organisms whose development is chiefly done in the putrefaction etc., etc.,".. This is more positive language than our actual knowledge fully warrants, but we quote the words of this most recent distinguished of medical writers to show-how decidedly the cryptogenic hypothesis of malaria poisoning is maintained by the students of diseases.To Mr Olmsted : As we are on the verge of a much wider & more satisfactory basis of facts concerning the essential causes of disease, we cannot afford to rush headlong with Niemeyer, nor yet can we do better than given prominence to the cryptogamic theory E. H. [*7 special*] The statements of the fact respecting the hypothesis which best accounts for the nature of the malarial fever-poison is more correctly given by the late Dr Drake, who spent the greater portion of his life in the careful study malarial fevers & the circumstances that produce them. He says, ... " The history of autumnal fever can be more successfully explained by the vegeta-animalcular hypothesis than the malarial, but both, in the present state of knowledge, must stand as mere hypotheses." He further attempts to give a concise summary of all the essential facts in regard to the general causes which are positively concerned in the production & the removal fo the sources of this fever poison:7 As to the summary covers precisely the arguments by which we advocate prevention - sanitary measures, it may well be quoted here. — = (1.) That, all other circumstances being equal, the fever prevails most where the organic matter is most abundant, - in or resting on, the soil. (2.) That where the surface is not moist enough to favor the decomposition of organic matter, the fever has but little prevalence. (3.) That a temperature of 60 degrees Fahr., or above, is necessary tp fermentation & putrification , & that the fever ceases, in going North, - when we reach a summer temperature below that degree. 8 (4.) That particular localities have experienced the fever in an Epidemic form when a surface abounding in organic matter has been newly exposed to the summer sun. (5.) That long cultivation exhausts the organic matter, & c, & diminishes the liability of localities to malaria.[l fever] In like manner the distinguished inquirer into the causes of malarial fever, Dr Rene Ma Roche, states, among other conclusions, that : — - - - ²(19.) [That] The opinion of fever being due to the introduction into the system, of a morbid poison floating in the atmosphere of sickly9 places, receives strong support form the analogy existing between their symptoms & lesions, & those from the introduction of putrid [and] organic matter into the circulation, or the inspiration of putrid vapor. = (20.) The arrest or instigation of fevers in malarial localities, by a resort to a proper hygienic means, .... [for] leads to the same opinion. " (21.) The Effects of trees, walls, hills, buildings, curtains, &c., in arresting the transit of the cause of fevers, are equally favorable to the idea of the cause being a poisonous substance, contained in the atmosphere." 10 Dr. MacLean, a man of vast experience in the British army in India & at present a Profr. in the Br. Army Medical School in England, summarizes the known means of prevention & removal of malaria in the following terse sentences: . . "Malaria disappears before cultivation & subsoil drainage, with free exposure of the soil to the air & living vegetation: When, however, the cultivating hand of man is withdrawn. & the old conditions reappear, malaria again resumes its sway." All Sanitary students agree in regard to the facts here quoted. Obligations to Dr Edgar, of Westfield Dr. Sanitary Topography of Staten Island. Geology & Hydrography of the Island. - The 40,000 acres comprised upon this Island present geological & mineralogical characteristics that make it a very remarkable connecting link between the geological formations of the corresponding portions of the New Jersey shore & the western section of Long Island. But Staten Island differs from & has some great advantages over both. The essential point of similarity exist in the grand ridge of trap & serpentine rock which, reappears, at the northern & eastern shores, from7 the New Jersey range of similar formations, & extend throughout more than half the long diameter of the Island, the talcose serpentine constituting the main axis of elevation, & the trap or basalt making a minor, & not very noticeable ridge or swell extending from Port Richmond to Long Neck & to Springville. True granite, a [?] quartzose variety, appears at high-tion livel near the [?] [?], Tompkinsville. Secondly, the similarity to the New Jersey shore near the Rariton river on the out island, or at New Highlands of Neversink on the other, appear in the ridges & masses of clay & of sand of the northern & western portions of the town of Westfield; & in the massive hill of [?] drift at Red Bank or Prince's 8 Bay Light, at the south shore of Westfield; while, Thirdly - The similarity to the Long Island shore consists in the actual geological or mineralogical unity of the section lowland portion of the southern portion of Middletown & all of Southfield with the towns of Kings & Queens Counties on L. Isld. This similarity is especially exhibited in those diluvial characteristics which pertain to both the Long Isld & Staten Isld areas as constituting what Geologists' would denominate a "terminal moraine" over which the ancient ice bergs, of the glacial period, passed out to the ocean. The curiously eroded basins9 or bowls, which so greatly the drainage of this region are among the effects left throughout both Islands. The impalpably fine clays, the varied & abundant admixture of the peroxide of iron & the vast diluvial deposits of gravel & boulders are also very important results of the ancient conditions here alluded to. The advantages which Staten Island enjoys, in respect of & other 10 special peculiarities of conformation of its surface & structure are sufficient to distinguish it above any corresponding areas in New Jersey or upon Long Island. The chief sanitary advantage in the latter peculiarities arise form the circumstance that the main ridge [of] & long axis of the highland of Staten Sold is consists of porous rock, is so situated with regard to the slopes on either side as to provide adequate & easy facilities for any drainage & sewerage they can ever require, while the vast ridge of rock itself is so porous that it acts as a receptacle & storage mass for water, which11 it so far diverts from stagnation near the surface as to insure a healthful dryness throught the entire region immediately upon the rocky section, &, at the same time yields springs of most excellent living water, secure from defilements. # The masses of diluvial gravel which fill up the irregularities of the serpentine rock, & which overlay the small area of [trap] rock also are stratified with a general inclination or dip to the northwestward, thereby securing additional facilities in the drainage, as, with the exception of Newdorp Plains, Southshore, [*#See Appendix A. for tests of porosity & solubility of the rocks.*] 12 & a part of Edgewater, the natural course of drainage is to the northward or N.westward, at [Cufford] & [Elting] & on an extensive position of Southfield or Westfield, even, the streams being found to flow to Fresh Kills & [Arthur] Kill Sound, northward. The western portion of the Island, extending from the terminus of the serpentine & talcose ridge at Richmond village to Billop's Point consist of vast diluvial masses of gravel & clays, &, in places, a covering of sand. The fine clays & a superabundance of peroxide of iron or hematite earth, given to that region13 important peculiarities & create necessities for artificial subsoil drainage that are not yet understood by the masses of property holders in the district, but aside from the special facility which the clays & ferriugenous sand have for making strata of impervious subsoil & a retention basis & plateaux for [bearing?] up the surface & subsurface water, all this region would be remarkably salubrious. Similar conditions in respect of subsoils & retention basis & water 14 bearing plateaux prevail throughout much of the lowland & slopes extending on both sides of the Island, from Richmond village to New Brighton, yet there is so much less fine plastic clay in the latter regions that this class of evils is much less as we approach the New Brighton terminus, yet we find, from personal inspection, that there are scarcely 2000 acres of soil upon the Island that do not present within two feet of the surface & usually upon the surface of the field & other grounds a suitable admixture of fine impalpable clay & hematite [sun] earth to insure the formation of a water-bearing or15 retentive sub-surface stratum were water to percolate in such earth & for a time be stagnated at any point. But this evil is equally as common to the New Jersey shore + to Long Island as to Staten Isd. A very great advantage of Staten Island over the regions of either of its neighboring shores remains to the mentioned, viz, the shorter & more broken character of the depth & breadth of the rims of its swampy & wet basins or eroded bowls, familiarly termed pond-holes by the inhabitants. The worst of these pond-holes on Staten Island are seen in the midst of the diluvial hills that extend 16 northward from port Wardsworth- Richmond Ave & [Newark?] Ave. to the old Richmond Turnpike or Gove Street. That is the region of this Island which the State Geologists assert to be in all respects a continuation of the same formation that prevails in Kings & Queens counties. In the latter counties there are numerous instances of deep swamps or ponded areas which present far greater difficulties in respect of cutting the necessary outlets for drainage through their extensive & very deep rims. There is [only one] no pond hole or swampland on Staten Island which presents such difficulties in drainage.16 The undrained ponds of this Island are very numerous & bring quick shallow or heavily burthened upon their margins & bottoms with organic matters in a state of gradual decomposition these have become the worth nurseries or centers of malaria. But were the question to be proposed as to what suburban region within twenty miles of Wall Street actually possesses the best geological and other natural facilities for perfect drainage, - a kind of drainage that should insure an area of 40000 acres against 18 malaria, we should be compelled to decide in favor of Staten Island. The fact that this Island has acquired a specially bad reputation for this very evil does not deter us from mentioning this conclusion. Other suburban districts may, by the adoption of energetic measures for sanitary drainage, actually remove the sources of malarial disease before this class of evils is removed from Staten Island, but it will be wholly the fault of the inhabitants of this Island if it is not the very first of all the suburban districts in banishing the local causes of malaria. The fact that the foci of Malaria are very numerous or much of the surface of the Island capable of19 being Malarious until deep drainage shall have been effected in such portions is fortunately, associated with the fact that the geological conformation of the Island gives every needed facility for the most thorough artificial drainage of every acre of malarial area. The soils. --The diluvial ground & the disintegrated talcose rock which constitute the basis of the chief portion of this surface soil of the Island are favorable to health. The abundant admixture of the oxide of iron in a finely divided condition & the [nea] intramixture & massing of sand are circumstances which 20 do not impair the healthfulness of the soils, yet the relations which these elements bear bear to the clays [of the Island] in various sections of the Island are important in respect to the causes & results of readily formed strata & condensed subsurface [?] [[?]] mines, retention of surface & subsurface water. The Rocks in place- the Ridge of Serpentine rock is extremely porous, & as shown in numerous excavations for wells, is so porous & fissile as to permit & secure the absorption & free passage of water into it. In position, we judge that the more superficial portions of this entire [mass] ridge of rock is capable of21 taking up & conveying or holding fully one fourth part or 25 [percentive?] of its own volume of water as it falls in ordinary rain storms. This degree of absorptive capacity makes this rock rank with the coastal sandstone & with the Chalk Cliffs of England in this respect. It is a quality greatly promotive of hygienic & economical advantages: first,- It makes this vast mass of rock a permanent & most trustworthy reservoir of water, which is given off [mass cliff] mainly [to] in those fissures which 22 are the natural valleys, & in which as a general fact, as well as at various other points nearer the base of the ridge,- the springs burst forth. There are, also, some vast reservoirs of water retained within the deep masses of diluvial gravel etc that fill up this larger ravines & fissures of this ridge of rock, as formed in the Clove & its vicinity, as yet more abundantly in the Willow Brook basin, extending from the summit of Todt Hill to the Graniteville or Springville plains. The observation should here be made that the disintegrated talcose rock & whatever soil chances to cover this ridge, never [becomes so] suffers from drought in such aLondon County Council REPORT TO THE PARKS AND OPEN SPACES COMMITTEE OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL BY THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF MEATH (Chairman of the Committee in 1889) ON THE PUBLIC PARKS OF AMERICA. Ordered by the Committee at their Meeting on the 21st May, 1890, to be printed and circulated among its members. [*[No. 77] 48]25 Island upon malaria that may chance to be floated from the lowlands against its sides or across it, as now actually occurs. In other words, such malaria is not intensified, as it would be by a more highly heated surface. The soils of Staten Island considered with reference to their relations to sanitary conditions: The only peculiarities of the various kinds of soil upon Staten Island which need be taken into account in respect of influences upon sanitary conditions are, (1) The nature, distribution & effects of the clays (the argellaceous earth); (2) The condition & distribution of the red oxide of iron; (3) The decaying vegetable matter, 26 & the state of the humus & other resultants of vegetable decomposition. The Clay that we find in the soil of this Island is so minutely fine as to be readily suspended in the subsurface water in such manner as to render the formation of an impervious stratum or [hardpass?] very certain in nearly every locality where water remains stagnant either upon or under the surface of the ground. The peroxide of iron which is so abundantly distributed throughout every portion of the Island tends to insure the speedy formation of superficial hard-[pass?] or impervious strata & lammellae wherever27 this form of iron is intermingled with argellaceous gravelly or sandy soil when such earths are saturated with water. This readiness in the formation of impervious strata is not altogether a disadvantage to agriculture or to the public health when found at a depth of from six to twenty feet beneath the surface of the ground. All argellaceous soils are subject to the evil of superficial strata of such impervious kind if artificial drainage is neglected. The particular reason for giving more than usual attention to this fact upon Staten Island is that the numerous pond-holes & surface pockets 28 & the margins of lowland upon the Island render it necessary to provide systematic outfall drainage as a means for protecting the populations from Malaria. The well known effect of such drainage is that of lowering the stand points of the ground water saturation & thereby securing the permiability of the soil to as great a depth as the thorough drainage extends. There are some sections of the Island in which the clays have a peculiar tenacity or compactness, & do, of themselves alone constitute an impervious stratum, at various distances from the surface of the ground; these instances29 are conspicious in portions of Westfield, Northfield or Southfield; & the region between Rossville & Richmond Valley inlet present the most extreme illustration of the effects of [Rise?] clays. The results of a combination of clays, hydrous oxide of irson, & gravel, in springy grounds are fully illustrated in regions of the iron mines on the plains near [near to] Centreville, where the ground even on highlands & [sno?] slopes are rendered so boggy & wet as to almost be valueless for agricultural purposes, until thoroughly water- drained. 30 The present consideration of the decaying vegetable matter, & the hummus & other resultants of vegetable decomposition sustains important relations to the sanitary & economical welfare of the Island. With a humid atmosphere & a moist soil, & with very protracted summers, this Island [bears] procduces an numerous quantity of vegitation. From the seaweed upon the shores to the dense thickets upon the upland there is [scarcely] [not a supreme equal of the Island not] a quantity of vegitation which unless removed for useful purposes is added to the production in like kind, of previous years. But little more than half of the Island was ever under tolerably good culture31 The speculation movement in real estate have tended to diminish the proportion of cultivated land & to induce a very negligent & ineffective kind of tillage. Extension fields that once were cultivated are now growing only brambles & wild grasses, in the intervals between new dwellings or upon areas which are vainly held for rising prices & new villages. Indeed, today as the cultivation of a great portion of the Island is at present conducted, the agricultural resources of the land have to a great extent remained undeveloped. After a very careful inspection of the entire island the past season 32 I dream it entirely warrantable to state that the agricultural & horticultural products of the unwooded portions do not in the aggregate amount to one tenth the quantity & value that the same lands are readily capable of producing under improved & thorough culture. Under such conditions of culture & cropping, it should be necessary to produce further evidence if the fact that every year there remains upon the surface a vast quantity of vegetable market in a state of unutilized compositions. Such vegetable waste should be re-assimilated by cultivated crops. And if we inquire the reason why33 high culture of field, & the general appreciation of the Island for market-gardening, is so greatly below any reasonable standard we shall find that this question would cover the main points which most directly relate to sanitary & economical improvement. Therefore in looking at the neglected state of cultivation & cropping as one of the sources of unassimilated products of vegetable decomposition, it has seemed important to notice what ever now tends to retard the proper tillage or profitable cropping of the land. In a subsequent section of this memorandum we shall mention further 34 particulars upon these several topics, for so long as the unassimilated resultants of vegetable decomposition are found in superabundance in & upon saturated grounds Staten Island will suffer with double severity from malaria & a kind of disrespect that impoverishes the county in a most needless manner. The line in which sanitary improvement & the enhancement of field-values will necessarily begin will inevitably be the very line of improvement which will quadruple the actual value of most of the ground of this Island for field & market products. The Woodland of Staten Island. The fact that there yet remain many35 hundred acres of fine woodland, & hundred more of recently cleared but again growing [woods] forests, is worthy the attention of citizens who should appreciate the sanitary & agricultural influence of woodlands. Not less than one thousand acres of the heaviest forests of the island have been cut down for the mean profits on the sale of wood & timbers during the past ten or eleven years. And during the past twenty years there has been an almost indiscriminate wasting of forests. The results that have followed hence, [pugerist] in numerous instances, been unfavorable 36 to health & to field products. Some of the hillside forests not only gave protection against malaria but against bleak winds. Yet the removal of forests bring perhaps inevitable, there has followed such removal another kind of soil that ought not to be inevitable in such a district. The greater portion of these woodlands have been left, after the removal of the trees, in an utterly neglected condition as respects clearing up their borders & draining the ponds & swamps that [?] found scattered in these lands. Consequently much of these [?]37 & neglected lands have become malarial. Though this particular evil may now decrease as the new growth of wood springs up, there still is need of some popular, if not authoritative, effort to preserve certain belt of [woods] forests, such, for example, as that which still remains between Howland, Hook & Old Place road, & that which still remains in the Willow Brook basin, & other groves between Woodrow & the Arthur Kull Sound. The special relations of trees & forest to the public health of the Island will be presently considered. 38 Sanitary Hydrography of the Island. The Salt Marshes. There are nearly 4000 acres of this kind of Marshland; and, as nearly as I can estimate, there are only about 3,500 acres that actually feel the influence [obstruction] of ordinary tides. Something more than 500 acres receive so much influx of fresh-water from higher lands & feel the ordinary tides so incompletely that they might be advantageously drained & dyked, with equally good results to health & to wealth. But the great body of the Salt Meadows are nearly harmless to health-: their chief, if not their only ill effects being in their augmentation of atmospheric39 humidity just where & when such an addition of moisture is undesirable. Upon careful examination of the question & much house to house inquiry, & the analysis of evidence obtained from physicians, I am led to believe that, with rare exceptions, the extensive salt marshes on Fresh Kills have never, & need never, become seriously injurious to health & the chances of long life of the inhabitants on their borders. But such little inlets of salt water as we find at Richmond Valley & in irregular estuaries like that one near Seguine Point, & at the outlet of Taylor Brook [*land that actually requires to be reclaimed from the sea should secure all the dyking which the sanitary interest of] The island demand: This would probably cover the entire front [(over)*] might advantageously be treated by draining & dyking, as the best means of preventing the interval of grounds which are saturated with fresh water - from becoming malarial. The torturous & obstructed termini of such inlets from the sea causes obstruction to the outflowing & the proper drainage from the upland. The great value of all the The watersheds of the Island. The main axis of the elevated ridges of the Island naturally determines the watershed toward the tidal margin through such deep masses of gravel & other diluvial earths that the outflowing or accessible The watersheds of this Island. The main axis of the elevated ridges of the Island naturally determines the watershed toward the tidal margin through such deep masses of gravel and the diluvial earths that the outflowing or [?]41 supplies of water are exceedingly pure and wholesome. The four or five available natural streams and basins yield the best of the waters of the Island, and the largest & most central of all of these is faultless and unfailing. Respecting the constancy & adequancy of these natural supplies of water the fact needs to become in [?] that such conditions cannot be insured except by the preservation of some quite extensive woodland & groves, enclaves we now find in the vallies from the estate of Mr. Blake to Wards Point. [*The ponds on Silver Lake as sources of malaria*] 42 of Willow Brook, Metcalfe Brook, Lemon Creek, & LaNoye's Woods. (The latter two being in the town of Westfield.) Such [an] ample natural resources for future supplies of water to dense populations in their own immediate vicinity [do] do not exist in [greater so] more convenient forms in any other suburban locality. The fact that by far the greatest quantity, & generally, the purest quality, of these waters have their outflow upon the northwestern slope of the Island will ere long render it necessary for the people to consider the question of acquiring & forever preserving certain of the water-rights on that [slope] side of the Island. The Natural Ponds. Beginning at Silver Lake, near New Brighton, & following along the ridges of Serpentine make 43 to Richmond villages and the Fresh Kills, we find small ponds from which a small quantity of water flows. These are not, as most people suppose them to be, the chief natural reservoirs of water for the island; on the contrary, they could all be dispensed with without any great diminution of the supply which now flows from the slopes or springs up upon the lowland. There is no sanitary objection to the preservation & embellishments of the natural lakelets, like Silver Lake's the Todt Hill [*#*] & Davis Farm ponds, though in the present neglected state of their margins & artificial outlets they have during the past year given [*# summit Hill would be a more appropriate name.*] 44 rise to malarial fever in families residing nearest to them Even Silver Lake has produced this effect very conspicuously. If preserved, all of these natural ponds should be properly cleaned up & kept clean upon their margins, & should not be allowed to be drained away too much during the hot season. The ponds upon the slopes of the ridges & upon the lowlands are numerous, & they have, during the past season of drought, become sources of malaria: the margins of all of them are well adapted to render them the nurseries of this poison, & they will continue to be45 sources of this evil until they shall have been completely drained, or at least until all that have not a constant inlet & outflow - a freshening supply - shall have been extinguished by drainage & culture, & such ponds as are to be [retained] preserved, should be effectually cleaned up. The pond-holes & all kinds of stagnant ponds & pools which, as already mentioned, are very numerous, [should] are the most inevitable nurseries of malaria. With scarcely an exception they admit of ready & perfect drainage remedy. Under the head of malaria we will presently give further account of this source of evil. 46 The extension area of low & swampy grounds lying between New Springville, the Willow-Brook dams, Graniteville, & the main outlets for its drainage near the Morning Star road at the north & by Bulls Head & Wagmont Mills, at the west, constitutes, it appears to [me] this commission, a locality for special treatment. As we have already noticed, there exists an elevated & rounded ridge of basaltic rock thickly overlaid with gravel throughout the entire distance from the waterside terminus of Morning-Star road [at Mariners Harbor] on the west side of Port Richmond, to Graniteville, New Springville, & Long Neck. The basin-like space between the foot47 of the uplands & the line of this impenetrable ridge receives not much less than two millions of gallons of water per diem from the hill streams. This quantity of water being added to the great amount which otherwise exists upon that extensive & almost dead-level plain renders it the dampest & most chilly # district upon the island. Considered with reference to sanitary results, as well as with reference to every other question of availability for residences for profitable culture, it must be regarded as a desideratum to control & deflect all the hill streams which now flow down upon that #Most chilly at night & whenever the sun is obscured. 48 swampy plain. If the hill waters were to be thus so deflected, as they readily might be, for useful purposes, it would be easy to so drain & cultivate that vast plain as to render it one of the most salubrious & beautiful districts upon any of the lowlands. Though I have been told by citizens of the island that the geological conformation of the district here mentioned is such as to forbid perfect drainage & consequent perfect salubrity, I have the high authority of Prof. J. L. Burberry, one of the ableist geologists in our country, for stating that there is no [practical] geological49 or other difficulty in the way of perfect drainage of the entire area. Prof. Newberry had the kindness to accompany me over - that district during the month of November. Artificial ponds. - Nearly all the ponds which I have found in pleasure grounds, together with some of the ice-ponds, are so treated as to be sources of malaria. But the evils connected with such ponds would speedily be remedied or the ponds extinguished, were their owners fully aware of the causes & their remedy. The small ponds & "pockets" for stagnant water which are found 50 in the vicinity of the clay - but workings crater evils which afflict Chiefly the workmen & their families in the vicinity of the beds. Though there may be some difficulty in wholly preventing this temporary formation of this class of stagnant pools, the evils are greatly dimished by the presence of so great an amount of facid alumina & certain suspended earths, so that the growth of algae & the generation of malaria in them cannot be [at a not] very greater possibly it would be found unnecessary to bring this class of pools under any other regulations than those which the local drainage & soaker - Commissioners in such district would51 from time to time suggest to the owners & workers of the clay pits. Roadside Ditches & Road Culverts. - In various localities, - some, the most populous, - the amount of stagnant water & house slop seen in the street ditches, is dangerous to the public health. This is widespread on Gore St., Arretha, McKeon, & other streets in Edgewater, & along various public roads on the Island. The carriage roads, & some sections of the S. Isle. R. R. presents some obstructions to drainage that are not likely to be relieved without the construction of deeper & well adapted culverts under 52 the road-bed. Though Staten Island roads are probably not more neglected in this respect than most of certain other counties, but the neglect of stagnant water by the roadsides in a district that is naturally favorable to the production of malaria, is a serious evil. Certainly every streamlet & pond should have an unobstructed flow by [a] culverted channels to depth equal to that of the lowest point in the bottom of the waters to be drained off under any roadbed. Millstream Dams & Ponds. - There are at least four streams which are so treated in regard to the mill-dams & ponds that have been formed.53 that the ponds & their margins have been made to produce malarial fevers. The water rights pertaining to those streams are almost worthless, & it will be found necessary to control & regulate such obstructions so as to prevent the evolution of malaria from the grounds they now affect. Well-waters. The quantity of well-waters is generally good throughout the Island, but there a few wells along the southern margins of the serpentine & talc cliffs that are not free from the objection that there are certain 54 kinds of magnesium earths suspended in the water at times. But we find that most of the wells that have been excavated in the solid serpentine & talcose rock yield wholesome water: the well-waters derived from the diluvial formations of the Island, are also wholesome, yet are somewhat variable in relative degrees of purity. A very extensive examination of the natural springs & the ordinary wells of waters upon the Island warrants the [restating?] that the region of coarse drift which extends from the snug harbor forest to the Willow Brook dams, & from Castleton Ave., Mill-road to the Old Philadelphia55 -delphia turnpike [to] & over crest of Todt Hill, yields the purest quality & greatest quantity of water that can be obtained upon any portion of the Island (see Analysis of specimens Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 5.) Rainfall & Climate. Rainfall. The average quantity of rain and melting snow yearly, upon Staten Island measures about 44 vertical inches. Taking the Fort Hamilton records, we find the mean annual rainfall would be 43-65 inches. The extremes of precipitation have been from 29 to 59 inches. The elevated & insular character of Staten Island secures for this locality as frequent rains as most localities [?] been 56 a greater total quantity of rain, as at [Yankees] Sing Sing & Flushing, & where there is a greater flood of precipitation. It is worthy of remark that the surface of the ground & the rocky ridges of Staten Island so readily absorb the rains that the direct wash into the surrounding tidal waters in very small. The precipitated waters are long in reaching the tide. Hence the Island is well guarded against our source of the drouths which occur in certain hill districts & island that have a very different geological formation. Climate of the Island. The mean temperatures in the year [*chief nurseries of malaria.*]57 on Staten Island is about 52 [degrees] North. The temp. of Long Island, on the opposite shore, at Pt. Hamilton, North is 51.5 [degrees]. The mean temperature of each of the four seasons, lacking the observations at Port Hamilton as our guide are as follows: Temperature of Winter 32.3 [degrees] "" Spring 46.7 [degrees] "" Summer 71.3 [degrees] "" Autumn 55.8 [degrees] It will be noticed that the mean temp. (but not high for this location.) of summer is high. The consciousness of this degree of warmth is greatly ameliorated by the sea breezes in the hot season. The sizes of the hills also promotes, by their [extra heat] 58 greater temperature, at evening, the ascent of brisk air-currants from the lowlands. This fact is directly connected with the movement of material impurity from certain ground & stagnant waters upwards upon the surface of acclivities & hilltops that otherwise would remain wholly free from malaria. The climate of this Island corresponds with that of Philadelphia & Wilmington, and with that of the Isle of Jersey near the French coast, in regard to mildness. The sea air is stimulating, but not harsh. It is highly ozonized, & this circumstance would tend to perpetually preserve the Island from malaria.59 If it were well drained. [It must too borne in view that this Summer & autumn temperature of this Island will always be more favorable - to this [production of kind with [?]]] The mean temperatures of New York, at port Hamilton, which is the standard point for [?] Isle, averages about 51.5° Fahrenheit. the mean of the Summer months for 12 years was found to be 71.3°; for the Autumn, 55.8° the Winter, 32.3°; for the Spring, 46.7°. [*To Complete, if necessary or if requested.*]62 Malaria on Staten Island. The evils produced by the existence of Malaria upon this Island seem to have increased just about in proportion to the decadence of good agricultural tillage & to the increase of partial, unmethodical & incomplete kinds of preparation or "improvements" for new streets & dwellings But we would not leave the statement of this fact in this form without a full explanation of the local history of malaria upon the Island, & a statement of the evidence that the sources of malaria here are controllable, &, may be extirpated. The following facts are submitted on this subject.63 This Island suffered no reproach on account of malarial diseases until a comparatively recent period when its woodlands had been extensively cut off. Previous to the year 1827 there seems to have been only an occasional occurrence of malarial fever on the Isl. Every year in which such disease has been particularly prevalent there has been at the same time either an [exception] drought, or unusual summer heat some frequent showers. [Excepionly] any summers in which the ponds, swamps & wells have been unusually dried, have been associated with the most severe kinds 64 of malarial fever that have afflicted the inhabitants here. At the same time, the malignancy & fatality of such diseases on this Island, in most seasons have not been as great as in neighboring districts of New Jersey & Long Island. Staten Island, for example, as never suffered from so malignant a fever as that which prevailed among the workmen & families at Fort Hamilton at the time when that fortification was being constructed. The clearing off of the old forest on the Island was followed by such drying of ponds & wetlands during 65 the hot seasons as [?] favored the production of malaria. Never had such ponds & wetlands been deeply drained before such exposure to evaporation, it is not presumed that the dry & hot seasons would have been necessarily sickly. In the very region in which the fevers in 1827 & 1828 was especially malignant we now find that 100 acres of deeply drained lands that had been only one year & a little longer under good drainage, have been free from malaria. In many 66 instances families & neighborhoods have suffered exceptions from this malaria evolved from a small area of pond-holes, or swamp & hog land that became desicated, or, at least unusually dried up in an unusually hot & dry summer. Such as been the experience the past two years. The neglect of good tillage & care of farming lands, & similar neglect of any of the wetlands on the Island Wherever the wood has been removed has led to a vast increase of the quantity of decaying vegetation upon & within the margins of pond hole wetgrounds. The way in which an ordinary67 pond dries away & leaves a margin of feculent & putrescent matter, daily increasing in breadth & in its harmfulness, in a drying season, is well shown by the following records of measurement which [I caused to be made] were made upon the margin of a pond in Westfield by a sanitary officer of the Metropolitan Board of Health who undertook to record some of the effects of evaporation upon the ground-waters. Pond nearly circular, average diameter 64 feet on May 15th 1869 June 3rd water had receded 2 ft 6 inches from former margins (decrease of diameter of record, 5 ft; width of fresh suspension margin 5 ft from 10th water record from original 68 outline of pond - 5 feet [July] June 17 = 5.6, " " 24 = 5, " July 3 = 8 " " 9 5 " " 16 7 " " 21 8.6 " 24 12.5 Aug 4 12 " 8 = 12. " 11 - 15. " 19 & 25th = 15. " 28 12 Sept 2d 12 " 7 12.4 " 14 12.6 " 28 14 " Sept 30th = 13 Oct. 3d = 12 " 7 12.6 15 = 12.8 18 10ft. " It will be here noticed that the 18th of Oct. was reached before the frost & malarial margins of that pond varied by rains, & by sun, heat, etc.69 [* # See Appendix "C.", for a series ground-water records.*] began to covered again by water; also that with every shower, & even with varying amount of sun heat the width of exposed margin varied. # during the summer of 1870 there were scarcely less than 1000 ponds, pond-holes & small swampy or boggy areas exposed to the process of partial drying or low-rising of the surface - water level by evaporation. It is in evidence that those ponds & wet grounds became the nurseries of malaria & 70 active producers of fevers that were so widely diffused during the autumn. Malaria from open ditches. In various parts of the Island we find ditches & open drains operating as stagnant pools & producing intense malaria. We have the most malignant instances of malarial fever along the line of the great ditch of stagnant water which extends all the way from the [?] Road to Vanderbilt Ave. near the Richmond turnpike. Similar experience has been found in the vicinity of Lemon Creek & at various other points where there are open71 ditches & sluggish watercourses. The effect of heat & drought upon undrained wet uplands, & upon any lands that are [boggy] for [a] part of the season kept saturated near to the surface by a retentive subsoil. Extensive tracts of land bearing the above description, has during the past three years, demonstrated a capacity for producing malaria. Even the beautiful slope of ground lying south from Richmond Ave & Sand Lane, & the entire acclivity from the Fresh Kills to the vicinity Sherrif Oakleys premises on the Rossville side, has proved malarial. The 72 same has been true of all the New Dorp plains to such portions of Westfield & Northfield as are not deeply under-drained. the Sandy grounds extending from Wards Point to Pleasant Plains & over Mr. Max. Haretzek's hill top, -- all of which are underlaid by retention clays & a saturated sub-surface, a region that is dry as the plains of Walcherin & in appearance, & which like those infamous examples of malarial sand-plains, they yield water [even] even in post holes & ordinary [fil] field-ditches. In the foregoing statements we have shown what are the local circumstances73 & the characteristics of soils that are associated with the production of malaria on Staten Island. The details of results of the special inquiries & inspections we have made cannot be given in this summary; but they warrant the statements we have here given. From the beautiful Silver Lake (a pond that has no outlet or loss of water except by evaporation, during the 4 hot months,) the boggy, & wet uplands of [?] & the entire region of the "Glove", the pond-holes of still higher grounds, & the hilltops of Widrow, & the slowly disappearing ponds in [pervasive] grounds & elsewhere during August season all necessary contributors for the production of malaria have been amply supplied. In the early part of the past [?] century, & seems no longer than 35 years ago, malarial diseases were for years scarce seen in many of the now populous neighborhoods where excellent field culture prevailed. The testimony of Dr. Edgar is that the general prevalence was only in occasional &75 for less frequent years than recently. And upon this point the testimony of Dr. Spencer on instituting [?] [?] in Westfield is directly in the time of positive evidence. Dr. Spencer says: While practicing medicine in all portions of Westfield from the spring of 1933 to 1839 he did no see or hear of a case of chills or fever. He then considered this Island free from that evil. (Those were remarkably wet years, at least 1837 & 1838.) but in 1839 he began to meet with cases of malarial fever. Were the curse of malaria inevitably fastened upon 76 this region of country, we should not have formed such periods of immunity. There are many regions in other states, in which the evil recurs every year. Staten has often escaped for brief periods, & possibly may again escape, in single years; & earn at the worst, the malaria which is affirmed on this Island is so attenuated that its season causes death. The Concord nursery of malaria near the [?] the "Glove", & a small district on the line of the S. O. R. R. are the only localities in which we have found proof that malaria has directly caused death to during the past three years.77 The Specific Causes of Malaria on Staten Island. - As already noticed, under the head of Geological characteristics, the direct causes of malaria in any portion of the Island are chiefly the pond-holes & the stagnant sub-surface waters which during the summer season is gradually removed or lowered by evaporation. These causes co-operating with & promoting the decomposition of, vegetable matter, furnish the required conditions for the production of malaria. That the germinal cause, if germs there may be, for the production of malaria, or the evolution of whatever poisonous exhalations it may be that actually produces the malarial fevers, would cease to produce fevers, & would be banished were the local causes, as here 78 mentioned, to be completely removed, is simply a matter of certainty: the proof of this proposition is found in records of every well-planned work of drainage in malarial districts & in the results which have followed the neglect or obstruction of drainage in places that once had been relieved from malaria. Abstract of Evidence on the points here alluded to concerning sources & prevention of malaria. On Staten Island. - Beginning at this place, where local improvements for the prevention of malaria have occurred only casually, we still find a trustworthy line of evidence that would guide to the correct theory & practice of sanitary drainage. This, briefly, 79 is the evidence: - (1.) Excessively dry seasons on Staten Island have for two centuries been attended by malarial fevers in dwellings exposed to emanations from the partially dried pond-holes & wet grounds; &, on the other hand, the exessively wet summers have not been attended by malaria in such localities. (2.) The excessively hot summers, with rapid evaporation, but with frequent rains - preventing drought, but with rapid partial drying of the frequently saturated grounds that for days remained saturated nearly to the surface, have been attended by a great prevalence of malarial 80 fevers, & these fever districts have been found associated with particular grounds that, from the existence of impervious argellacious strata, could be dried only by evaporation, unless thoroughly under-drained by artificial means. In such summers, as that of 1867 for example, the open areas most exposed to direct evaporation, have sufficed more than the shadowed localities which in very showery seasons like those of 1866 & 1867, enjoyed unusual immunity from malaria, have again - (in the 81 drought of 1869-70), suffered more severely than some of the localities which had most malaria in 1866 & 1867. These peculiarities in respect of localities & seasons have caused many discrepancies of medical & popular opinion & statements regarding the sources & remedies of malaria [?] these very circumstances of variation etc. throw much light upon the whole subject, when we come to an upon the entire series of facts connected with malarial localities & seasons. - (3.) Particular sections of ground extending over several acres, or, in some instances with only a single homestead or83 & contiguous wet grounds in one of the natural little basins that existed upon the premises: the pond & wet grounds were deeply drained & a stratum of fresh gravel was covered upon them several years ago, & since that time the kind of fevers which had done great harm until then, [has entirely disappeared] has been wholly banished. The beautiful premises of Messrs Meyer & Luling on Fingerboard Road afford very conclusive examples of the banishment of malarial fever by simple deep drainage, while the [lands contiguous to these] contiguous lands remain undrained & unsafe for habitation. 84 The medical evidence is complete upon this point, & to this day, the family that owned & occupied certain dwellings on this Island when the house lot & premises were not drained, continue to suffer the evil effects of malarial poisoning then contracted, the families that [now] have continued to occupy the same premises since drainage works were completed, have remained wholly exempt from the influence of malaria. There are several instances in which the thorough drainage of from five to 15 or 20 acres immediately around the dwelling has secured entire immunity from malaria, while all the contiguous premises85 continue to suffer from the evil [effect] the localities in which such isolated special immunity can be secured upon after years, by so limited an extent of drainage and not likely later numerous, for they are necessarily associated with the presence & influence of [?]ly groves & clusters of dense foliage & flowering or balsamic shrubs which aid in the protections against all the wafted malaria from contiguous or neighboring malarious grounds. (4.) Lastly: The portions of Staten Island which never give origen 86 to malaria seem to be; first, those elevated dry ridges & hills that are incapable of having stagnant waters upon or near the surface of the soil for any continuous period of the hot seasons; second, those lower lands, whatever their conformation, that are free from stagnant surface or subsurface waters during the hot season; & third, the salt-marsh lands that are daily saturated with sea water. These three classes of ground seem to be the only kind that are exempt from liability to the production of malaria on this Island, Long Island, Westchester County, or the New Jersey side below an elevation87 of 800 to 900 ft. altitude above tide-level. The foregoing statements define the local conditions under which malaria is produced on Staten Island & throughout the entire region of the same altitudes & of similar geological conformation. Let us now see how the experience & local causes of malaria in this region compare with established sanitary principles & facts as stated by the most trustworthy authorities in medicine & hygiene. "Malaria", "Marsh-Miasma", or the cause of the intermittent & often periodical fevers, produces a great variety of diseased conditions which vary exceedingly in their 88 degrees of intensity; & the range of varieties & degrees of intensity of the malarial diseases corresponds with the varieties & concentrations of the known causes of malaria. (For authorities see treatises of Dr. Danl. Drake Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America;) McCullogh, (On Malaria,) O. W. Holmes (Prize Essay,) R. La Roche (Malaria as a Cause of Disease,) Parkes (Treatise on Hygiene,) McLean (On Malaria etc. in Reynolds System of Med.,) Aitken (Geography of Diseases, Practice of Med.) Ferguson, Blane, Wood, Wilson, Niemeyer, & all respectable authors on the Causation & treatment of diseases.) the simple terms in which the distinguished [?] for Watson has defined the essential causes of89 malarial fevers, sufficiently expresses all that is positively known upon the subjects, & his definition at once indicates the means for precautions of its production. Dr. Watson says, ... "for producting malaria it appears to be requisite that there should be a surface capable of absorbing moisture & that this surface" (or ground) "should be flooded or soaked with water, & then dried," -(by evaporation;) - & the higher the temperature & the quicker this drying process, the more plentiful & more virulent the poison that is evolved." The presence of vegetable matter in a state of decomposition 90 topmatter with a prevailing temperature averaging above 60 Fahr. daily for several weeks at a time are necessary conditions for rendering such water-soaked soils malarious. So, likewise, the latter conditions are found to be attendant upon the production of malaria in or upon stagnant waters. All observers agree in this. That the malaria which has prevailed upon Staten Island depends the physical conditions here mentioned, & that such conditions are avoidable by skilful drainage & the proper care91 of wetlands, etc., [admits] if no doubt. All the educated physicians & other careful observers of physical phenomenon & the public health in Richmond county entirely agree upon all these facts. Unavoidable Concomitants. A high "dew-point" or a high average humidity of the atmosphere, & the daily occurrence of specially cooling breezes which tend to cool apartments & their occupants, & especially to cool such persons as chance to be over heated in the open air, at particular hours of the day & evening, must be remembered as among the 92 chief of concomitant physical conditions that operate in the aid of the actual malaria in producing malarial diseases in the human body. But these two natural conditions of the atmosphere of Staten Island are also to be regarded as positive advantages, wherever the persons exposed to them understand & properly avail themselves of the advantages. Even the humidity plays the part of a good or an evil agency, according to the discretion of individuals to the degrees to which it is modified by artificial aids or ventilation & drainage. But in a seaside region that already93 has ample means for producing malaria, it becomes necessary to remember & provide for these two inevitable conditions which prevail in all seaside districts. The means for reducing & controlling these two constraints - humidity & cooling air currents must be chiefly sought, 1st, in the proper drainage & drying of grounds, &, 2d, in the planting & preservation, & proper management of [free] shrubbery, & undergrowth. These means will ensure upon the 94 increases of popular known edges & a more intelligent administration of local laws & regulations. Yet, without waiting such a desired result the sources of malaria, as a fever - poison can readily be banished from the Isld. Evidence that Drainage can alone banish malaria from the Island. We have mentioned a series of instances which directly demonstrated that intense malaria has been banished from particular areas upon this Island by mere drainage & drying of wet ground, pond-holes, etc. The evidence upon the question of banishment & prevent-95 -ion of malaria, by drainage, its conclusion in all quarters of the world. The [?] records of evidence on this point already file thousands of pages in sanitary history, & there is no conflicting evidence upon this subject: the only question which occasionally fails to be properly understood & treated in regard to this matter, is that which relates to the depth & thoroughness of drainage & the perpetual maintenance of good drainage works. The kind of field drainage which actually insures the best horticultural & general 96 tillage results secures also the best hygienic results, - in respect to the improvement or reclamation of actually malarial lands & places. But it is an important fact that stagnant open ditches, open ditches of any kind which have foul & slimy or saturated sides, partly or wholly bare, swamps or pond-holes that are only partially drained, & the extent & quantity of saturated earth exposed to the sun, etc., increased rather than diminished; or, wherever the once permanently saturated grounds are so incompletely drained as to expose much such land to the process of drying away the sub-surface water-97 (of saturation) by evaporation instead of by under channels of drainage, may & usually does become more instead of less malarious. This fact has been amply illustrated in half-way treatments of pond-holes swamps, old mill-ponds, etc. Some highly instruction cases of this kind have formed record in the local counts of the State of Connecticut & in the early medical history of towns in the southern & middle States before the causes of malaria were as clearly comprehended as they now are. (More instances, see the Case of Ruggles, vs., 98 Boardman & others, New Milford Ct. Hon. David Daggett, Judge; also the history of fevers from the Bush's Askley, & Hubbards, Ponds, in the valley of the [Ronsitonic]; also for great variety of instances see Dr. D. Drake on Diseases of the American Basin, etc.) (Note: Required Depth (& thoroughness) of Sanitary Drainage. It is necessary to apply certain specific rules for sanitary drainage, although if the [?] horticultural rules were faithfully applied it would scarcely be necessary to make seperate mention of the sanitary rules. (1.) Competent directors of drainage should determine the depth at which the retention99 subsoils & sub-surface basins are then formed upon the grounds to be drained. (2.) The system & means for the drainage must be entirely adequate & properly planned to insure the removal of all sub-surface or stagnant "ground water" to a depth of at least two & a half, or in certain soils & particular places, to a depth of full three feet from the top of the ground. (3.) Upon boggy & obstructed wet grounds that have some favoring grades for surface drainage; also in all ponds that are preserved, there should be some 100 system provided for removing the surface water or for insuring the continual flowing or movement of such aters are not [?] to removal by under-drainage; thereby preventing stagnation, the growth or decay of alga, etc. There is ample evidence that upon side-hills that have boggy & springy grounds, open ditches or shallow sub-surface drainage will suffice to prevent such areas from becoming malarial, if - for the open ditches a complete or ready flowing is continuously maintained. And in the extension treatment of a malarial upland region101 this economy is some portions of the drainage becomes a matter of possible advantage to the landowners or tax payers.) Evidence continued from American towns. In the State of New York there were extensive districts throughout the "Lake Country", from Syracuse to Buffalo, in which the fever & ague continued to be very prevalent until thorough agricultural drainage & the deep drainage of ponds & swamps had been effected 102 within the past twenty - five years. Now, whenever there is such drainage, the people remain unvexed by malaria. Personal inspection of these facts in at least fifty of these country towns warrants the above general statements and correspondence with medical gentlemen in other towns corroborates the evidence. In writing to us recently, the senior physician in the thriving town of Batavia N.Y., Dr. L. B. Cotes, states the following facts: ... "I commenced my medical career in this county in 1826; ...for years we had nothing but malarial diseases to contend with, & it was so very ap-103 -parent that the villages of Batavia where I reside, was seriously suffering from the effect of moist lands in its vicinity that I got together a meeting of our citizens, at which time were instructed "measure for drainage" by private funds & enterprise. So apparent were the good effects of this work, to recover valuable land as well as to improve the healthfulness of the atmosphere, that the same policy was pursued in other localities, & soon became quite general in the county. During the last sixteen years we have had little of any malarial fever." 104 The entire valley of the Ohio, & of the Miami, the Scioto & the Wabash rivers is filled with examples of the power of deep drainage to banish malaria, & if instances of the failure of mere [?] & town improvement, without drainage to produce such a result. We will mention a single illustration, upon the authority of the late Dr. Daniel Drake the medical historian of the Western Valley. "...Shawneetown, in Illinois, ten miles below the mouth of the Wabash river, was always a sickly town. But in the year 1838 the State of Illinois employed a large number of laborers here in the con-105 struction of a railroad. It was sickly at the time. The town suffered dreadfully, & the strangers still worse: nearly all of them were sick & one seventh of their number died. But they dug an immense ditch (which extended to a depth of 40 feet near the river) to drain the swamps & wet lands in the vicinity of the town. The effect of this measure upon the autumnal health of the inhabitants was immediate & it has continued ever since. The fevers no longer return." (Diseases of the Valley of North America; by Daniel Drake, M.D. Vol 1, page 316.) 106 Thousands of equally opposite illustrations of the sanitary effects of deep drainage in our American towns & in particular localities could be presented. But as these have not fully descended into the annals of history, & the great sanitary reforms in the greater part of such places in our new country are also associated with the results of thorough tillage of the lands, we turn to the strictly historic illustrations, now, & will not forget to again advert to the influence of good field culture. The malarial district near Rome. History confirms the following medical facts upon this subject. (1.) The saturated107 ated & marshy lands that received the natural outfalling waters from the Palatine, Aventine, & Gaspeian Hills were, for centuries so excessively malarious that the people stood in great fear of the localities whence the malaria was evolved. The temper & worship of the myth Febris certified the reality of the fear & the peril caused by the malarious region. The Elder Tarquin ordered & provided the thorough drainage of that region, by a system of deep sutberranean channels that conducted the waters into the Tiber. Immediately the evils of malaria were banished to such a 108 degree that, the historical testimony upon this point is made conclusive. But, upon the invasion by the Goths. The suburban as well as the urban system of drainage was obstructed &, for centuries, was virtually destroyed. The Pontine Marshes were rendered salubrious by deep drainage & the diversion of inflowing waters, but after centuries of that fortunate experience of immunity from malaria, the undoing & partial destruction of the drainage works, upon the invasion, was followed by the perpetual & yet unrelieved curse of malaria. Even those109 sections of the Tuscan portion of the [?] which have an apparently dry surface (land which actually have a stagnant stratum of sub-surface water near the upper soil) remain to this day uninhabitable on account of the intense malaria of the entire region. In & near Rome we find a complete illustration of the banishment & prevention of malaria, for centuries, & again of a return of the curse upon the destruction of the drainage works by 110 which the former immunity had been obtained. Hundreds of severe cases of malarial & typho-malarial fever, (& some fifty fatal,) among the prelates & representatives at the recent Ecumenical Council at Rome certifies too plainly that the city & vicinity are still unsafe for habitation (more full account concerning the malaria of that region, see The writings of Pliny, Lancisi, Copeland, Sitkins, LaRoche, Boudin, & other standard authors on malarial fevers.) In France the cities & regions of Bordeaux & Rocheford illustrate the power of drainage to banish malaria. [That]111 England are witnessed the most triumphant results of drainage over the causes of malaria, for in the counties of Kent, Sussex, Essex, & Lincolnshire & other districts the improved field culture did not banish intermittent fever until deep subsoil drains had been laid down. And the fact is important that the advanced teachings of agricultural science which now require that in all argellacious & retraction soils the tile drains shall be laid down to a depth of 3 feet or more, & as frequently as in parallels not exceeding 30 to 40 feet apart, have brought 112 relief from the malaria that until this reform still lingered in various districts of England. Decamping Vegetation. - The fact is abundantly proved that vegetation in healthful progress in fields & gardens tend greatly to diminish the influence or neutralize the action of malaria. And, on the other hand, the presence of vegetable matter in a decomposing state in the soil, the waters, or upon the malarial surfaces augments & intensifies the malarial poison. The best investigations seem to prove that vegetable113 matter in process of decomposition serve as means of increase & permanence of the yet unknown poison which we term malaria. It is certainly proved to be then that wherever, in a region that is liable to malarial fevers the improvements in field & garden culture are made to utilize the available vegetable matter & putrescences, & the "cropping" is well maintained, the intensity & the liability to malarial attacks are greatly mitigated & not infrequently malaria seems 114 to affect only the most impoverished & badly housed persons; but we cannot yet feel sure that mere good culture alone can remove malaria or wholly banish it, except in connection with deep drainage or the full equivalent for such drainage by means of subsoil plowing, etc., & the removal of all obstructions to the normal movement of "ground water" under the surface soil. The direct & very considerable influence of rotting vegetable matter, -not in any manner utilized by growing vegetation, - on the production & maintenance 115 of malarial poison is well illustrated by the effect of the process of Flax Rotting by the old practice of submerging the flax in stagnant pools & ditches. The great student of natural hygiene & the causes of disease Dr. Lancisi, of Italy, first called attention to this source of malarial production, etc., in the description he gave of of the fevers which for successive autumns threatened to depopulate the town of Urbs Vetus, which being situated upon an elevated portion of Etruria, became a proper place for conclusive studies upon the 116 agency & effect of that old practice. He secured the abolition of the practice there in the year 1705, & immediately the malaria was banished. The stagnant water & the rotting of flax in it were also [?] removed. Further observations upon this subject finally [?] the prohibition of the practice in France, Flanders & Ireland. Indeed the King of Spain, upon a mere opinion & the wish to satisfy a local belief on this subject, did, as early as 1627. prohibit the practice in Flanders. Evidence on this points, the 117 agency of decomposing vegetable matter, - is so abundant that we need quote no more of it. - The Direct agency of healthfully growing trees, plants & shrubs, & of flowering plants in neutralizing or diminishing the effect of malaria. - The facts already ascertained may be stated as follows: (1.) Growing vegetation utilizes by the roots & spongeoles the decomposed & putrefying vegetable matter that would otherwise increase 118 the production of malaria. (2.) Healthful & active vegetation absorbs enormous quantities carbonic acid gas & ammonia, while the oxygen given off from leaves is in its most active & health giving state. Water also is sucked up from the ground by living trees & shrubs & is given off by the leaves in vast quantities, as vapor in a healthful condition. (3.) Certain trees & plants are believed (not yet fully proved) to absorb & utilize by means of their leaves & green portions (chlorophyl) the actual malarial poison; (4.) The influence of[*Sanitary agency of forests & vegetation.*] all the balsamic & benzoin producing trees & shrubs, & of the sunflower & all fragrant & flowering plants & shrubs in neutralizing or in some way, not yet fully explained, preventing the effect of malaria, is positively known. Experiments thus far chiefly prove that the volatile emanations (oils & all odors) undergo rapid oxidation as the pass off into the atmosphere, & that action & disinfecting oxygen ("ozone") is thereby eliminated & made useful. It is probable there other chemical facts 120 yet to be ascertained concerning these complex agencies of vegetation in maintaining the healthful conditions of atmosphere & of the life of animals. Lastly, the obstruction agency of trees & forests, & even of well planted hedge-rows, in preventing malaria from reaching the habitations to leeward of malarial grounds, is a fact well proved, as the following statements show: - The town of Augusta, Ga., now the capital of the State presents the following sanitary records upon this point ([La Mer] of Prof. Joseph Jones, formerly a teacher & practitioner of medicine in that city.) ... (not ready.)121 Dr. Lewis, in his medical history of Alabama records an instance that proves the direct power of a belt of forest trees to obstruct & prevent the effect of malaria to the windward of malarial places: "The negro quarters of M. P. E. were situated on the first plateau above the low grounds & the creek, a quarter of a mile from the latter; & a belt of forest intervened. the overflowing creek caused the low grounds to be malarious. In the winters of 1842 & 43 the woods were cut down, & this left the cabins of the negroes exposed to the creek & low grounds. During the first summer after the removal of the forest 122 fevers made havoc among these negroes, & continued until frost. Subsequently the cabins were removed to the other side of the creek, & beyond a belt of woodland, & thereafter they seemed to be protected in the same manner as they had been before the first woodland was cut down." (New Orleans Medl. Journal. Vol. 4.) Prof. David Hosack mentions an instance in which an old family homestead that had always been free from fevers suffered & continued to suffer after the cutting down of a belt of forest trees that had for a generation protected the dwelling fromthe malaria of a morass that was situated at the leeward of dwelling & the forest. (See Hosack's Bac. Of Phipic, p. 74) Dr. Lancisi, of Italy, states that the southern portion of the [?] of Rome was protected from malaria of the Pontine marshes by a thick forest that extended from Mascati & Albano at the Tiber. Upon the cutting down of the forest all the region it formerly protected has become infamously malarial. At Campo Salino & Vallenti the cutting down of belts of forest on the windward side of malarial districts was followed by disastrous 124 malarial fevers in the windward regions which had enjoyed the protection of those trees. Volney states that Beyroot had long been unhealthful from malaria where "the governing Emir caused a forest or belt of fir trees to be planted for a league to windward of the city, towards the source of the malaria." These illustrations are numerous & afford uniform results. At the same time there is a peculiar fact associated where the record of such protecting belt of trees, viz., that it is proved to be hazardous for persons to tarry or125 lodge under such trees, & especially upon the leeward margin of them towards the malarial grounds, the poison seeming to gain increased effect along the line of the obstructing forest. (see Sir Mcferguson's [?] & History of malaria. Effect of Cutting off belts of forest on Staten Island. In the vicinty of Eltring, Huguenot, & Armadale the increase & persistence of malaria have been well marked since the extension wood cleaning have occurred to the portion westward. Similar 126 has been the experience upon a portion of [Ben Dorf] plains that was partially protected from the forest malarial thatch of the Black Horse region by belts of woodland, now removed. In like manner the increase of malaria along Bedthorn Avenue & at various points on & near the old Richmond Plante road, along Morning Star road, & in the vicinty of Egbetville, has been noticed to follow upon the removal of belts & clusters of trees. Between Rossville & the clay banks near Kreischersville there is the same observation of increased malarial sickness. Mariners Harbor & Howland & Hook Streets yet remain remarkably secure from malaria so far as they remain sheltered by the forest to the land & eastward upon the estates of Mr. Bowman & others. But upon the other side of that narrow & long belt of pines & oaks toward Old Place & Summerville there is a great amount of malarial sickness. In various places on this Island the denudation of woodland has greatly increased the liability to malaria & in many localities we believe that a previous 128 planting of clearly deciduous & resinous trees, for purposes of landscape embellishment, would greatly aid to protect extensive neighborhoods & particular dwellings from malaria that is now wafted to them. the eastern Clove region, Cherry Lane, Old Church road, (Cransbeville), Old Richmond Plank road, & Fox Hill & the Concord region are such localities. The duty of planting & preserving trees was enjoined upon the Roman Tablets, & Dr. Lancisi expresses the opinion that the recognised sanitary usefulness of 129 forests & groves about Rome affords the only proper explanation for that attempt to gain sanctity to a merely hygienic & public duty. We find upon conversing with the medical practitioners & other intelligent citizens of Staten Island that they agree in the opinion that the reckless cutting of the woods & clusters of trees during the past 15 or 20 years has greatly promoted the increase of malarial fevers. 130 Evidence of the natural salubrity of the climate & soil of Staten Island. It has always been regarded as a sound test of the natural salubrity of a locality that inhabitants in all the ordinary vocations of life reach a high average age, that many reach extreme old age in good health & vigor, that infant mortality is not excessive, that tuberculous & degeneration diseases are less frequent than in the average of the country & cities, & that the number & average age of offspring in families range higher than the average of the country & citiesI am sure you will like to know. I hope you and your [?] and sister are well after passing through so much sorrow. I have not written before because it is a long time since I have seen you and I did not want it to come from a stranger. But I think it is a help to know one has the sympathy of friends and I hope that even after all these years we may still be called so. Very sincerely yours Gertrude Clerque October thirteenth 1902133 different towns upon this Island prove that from adequate causes the "Chances of life", the rearing of families, & the avoidance of organic & wasting disease are exceedingly higgh throughout the Island. P.R. Old Mc. R Barrett Appended Statements (nearly ready.) A. Abstract of Evidence from statements & records of physicians of Staten Island. B. Description of the Principal Centers & sources of malaria. (with road map.) C. Chemical & Mineralogical Examination of subsoils & of porous rocks. D. Records of Ground-water Measurements in 9 localities in gravel & sandy regions that suffer from malaria etc. etc. And this Analysis of waterswhich I think will need to have prominence in the General Report vy Mr. Olmstead. E. H. Dec. 22d/70.New Brighton Dec. 26 /20 My Dear Sir: I have begun to recast a non committal but strong statement on the duty or methods of care of the excremental matters. Can let you have it Tuesday morning, with the former - move extracted [membranes?]. I find I have your map, - at lest I had one too many when I got home. Truly yours. E. Harris F. L. Olmsted F. L. Olmsted Esq 110 Broadway 1 Tompkinsville Staten Island NY Dec 26th 1870 Mr Frederick Law Olmsted D sir, In compliance with your request I herewith submit for the consideration of your "commission" some ideas on what I deem the most practical, and economical plan for affording greatly increased Ferry facilities to and from our beautiful Island. You are probably aware that as the ferry boats now run - there are nine different points of departure from the east and north sides of the Island. he facilities for leaving the Island is almost at every mans door. But the great disadvantages2 are the long intervals of departure from the City now too long especially for business men. The missing of a boat departing at a certain moment (which all are liable to do - owing to delays of cars, omnibuses etc.) often involves the loss of an hour - not only to those disappointed, but those depending for, or on them - besides businessmen must often mite and watch or suddenly dismiss a friend or customer to reach the bank or loose an hour. "Time is money" especially in this fast age - we can endure the loss of of a half hour - but the frequent loss of a whole hour, become too intolerable to be borne. How can the present difficulty be overcome? You will ask. The plan is this - erect a new Ferry Landing at the nearest point of 3 land on Staten Island opposite the City of New York. A point that will give a bee line from Staten Island to New York - passing just south of the bouy at Robbins Reef. The passage at this point can be made in from fifteen to twenty minutes - allowing ten minutes to take on and pass off passengers and leave no loose freight to be taken. A boat on the direct Ferry can leave the slip at White Hall in the City on the half hour, at the Island on the hour - thus coming in between the regular hourly boats (as they now run) affording communication with the Island every half hour. This arrangement in connection with the Shore Rail Road running from the direct ferry, to the east and north shores - the most popular parts of the Island will be within twenty to sixty minutes [of the] from the City. 4 From that point - say New Brighton Point, on New Brighton City - constant communication can be kept up - The route being short, and straight - neither storms, Ice, or Fogs - need interrupt communication - it is more frequent and reliable communication which our Island requires to ensure to us our proportion of the overflow of the great Metropolis. To run half hourly from the present landings, involves and expenditure of $300.000 for new boats, as it requires two extra boats to keep up a line of four boats with certainty, besides doubling the daily running expenses. Cost of outfit for a direct Ferry. Cost of dock & necessary buildings at "New Brighton City." $50,000. One withdrawal boat $100,000. in all $150,000 daily running expenses say $100 - 5 How to raise the funds. Let the present R.R. Ferry Co. isue and sell improvement Stock to cover cost of a Boat and Landing and Ferry buildings - Then run the direct Boat from 4, 5, or 6. A.M (according to [?]) from the Island. untill 7 1/2 P.M. from the City. and the regular hour boats till 8 P.M. after which they may cease running and the direct boat continue running till after midnight - leaving the Island on the hour, and the City half past each hour, or all night if found necessary - Yours truly &c J. C. [Thocuprou?]Staten Is. 1870 New YorkDRAFTS REPORT OF COM, ORGAN? Staten Island Imp. Com. Reports of organizing committee. All important material in these papers is embodied in the reports of Staten I. Improvement ComTo the Board of Commissioners under the Act of the Legislature of the State of New York passed may 5th 1870. with reference to Improvements on Staten Island. The undersigned a Committee appointed by your Board July 11th 1870. to [report] propose a Plan for organization: [&c] Beg leave Respectfully to Report: The Act which is the fountain of our power, and the rule of our action, has excited great interest, and been submitted to the severest scrutiny, and we believe that enlightened public opinion now accepts it, as containing no powers except such as are necessary for the advancement of the public good - placed in the hands of those most interested in preventing their perversion to any other purpose. The action of this Board has already been beneficial in arousing [public spirit] a disposition of hopeful inquiry, and [initiating] stimulating co-operation, which is the only remedy for evils which are totally beyond the compass of individual power. [It is] May it be the beginning of an departure from that course of abdication of the rights and duties of Citizenship on the part of those most oppressed by all public burthens, which is at the root of all the grievances of which the publiccomplain. If all will aid in the work of improving an island it will be found that the burthen of personal sacrifice will be really small upon each individual, and the benefits incalculable. If the work often is thrown upon one by the non-participation and indifference of many, the process by which public evils are generated and increased, will be still continued. Let us call your attention to the particular state of things in reference to which, the Act creating this Commission was conceived and procured to be enacted. Staten Island contains a territory of upwards of 40,000 square acres - lying compactly upon the Harbor of New York - extending from six to twenty [three] one miles from the Battery, [between New York and the ocean] looking on one side upon the ocean and separated from the continent on the other only by a narrow strait. It contains almost every variety of desirable soil and surface - picturesque heights - fertile vales - chrystal lakes, springs and streams - bluffs, meadows, glens - inlets from the sea, the Bay and the Sound - mineral riches the exploration and manufacture of which, has been the source of employment and wealth to many - sea beaches rich with Ocean shells and open to the Ocean breezes. Its climate is cooler in summer and milder in winter that that of the neighboring main land and its vegetation is [?] varied. Protected. [to a certain]2. [intent] by the intermediate waters from the turmoil, filth and squalor of the Commercial part of the Great Metropolis of which it is necessarily a suburb, it is evident at a glance that it possesses attractions of a very extraordinary character - attractions peculiar to itself. There is a very general impression however that these advantages have been to a certain extent wasted - that in competition with other localities less favored by nature, the island has fallen behind, and is in a comparatively depressed and unsatisfactory condition. It [is true that not a few] cannot be denied that many costly improvements are to be found - that there are especially numerous goodly houses and beautiful grounds, but these, it is said, too often stand apart or in small clusters, with wide and not unfrequently dreary intervals between; and everywhere a singular disunity of intention and of action is to be observed, indicating that the people are unaccustomed to take counsel together for the common good. In illustration of this charge, the public roads in many parts [of the Island] are said to be more suitable to a remote and impoverished country district, than to [a] the rich and populous suburb which the island might be expected to be; narrow, disconnected, ill directed, ill drained, badly graded, badly constructedand often with raw, neglected and untidy borders. Again it is alledged that in respect to schools, seminaries, Public Libraries, Lyceums and other seats of education and learning, our island with every natural advantage for institutions of this class of a high order is far behind the demand of the times in most enlightened communities. [The] neglect of drainage &. Thusby the breeding and perpetration [is pointed to as another] disease is another choice against us. [If blemish on our character. That any part of the island does in fact should suffer from want of proper drainage it is indeed hard to see why seems quite inexcusable.] The natural facilities for drainage are so obvious, and the disadvantages [to health, and to all agricultural and horticultural undertakings] of defective drainage so great, that it is indeed difficult [indeed impossible] to reconcile the permanent presence of excessive moisture and especially [want of sufficient drainage with the] of stagnant water upon or in the soil of any part of the island with the [co] existence of ordinary public spirit and common sense among the people, [or even to with an the intelligent attention by individuals to their own interests.] It is admitted by those who make these complaints that the natural advantages of Staten Island have not been altogether neglected [escaped the attention of] or failed to be developed by intelligent capitalists, but it is said that the causes to which allusion has been made have prevented [a] the realization of [our realizing] more than partial benefit from such attention. [Over thirty years ago for exemple, capital, taste and intelligence were applied at one point in a somewhat comprehensive, systematic and far sighted way [systemically], and the result is seen in the one yet measurably well ordered and complete suburban village [beautiful Village] of New Brighton, where the] 3. [market value of Real Estate, has ever since been much higher than on any other part of the Island. But the causes and obstructions to which we have alluded are supposed to have alone prevented the movement from becoming continuous and universal. Had it been encouraged by an enlightened co-operative public spirit all over the Island, the whole would it is said be now advanced at least fifty years in the career of wealth and prosperity.] [*visit X*] We may briefly refer to certain allegations of a more general character. Staten Island was originally peopled, and her land possessed by those who went out from the young city of New York, because they preferred a sequestered country life. They found the land pleasant, and their descendants who cling to it still, [have] having generally inherited the ideas, habits, traditions and prejudices of their ancestors, [and] exhibit unyielding if passive resistance to the tastes, habits [progressive] and spirit of the metropolitan population which is flowing [ideas of the present time. The discouraging influence] upon them. [of this resistance has long obstructed and turned aside the currents of improvement, so that the value of land in many districts, further from the common centre in the city of Ne3w York, and naturally less convenient and less attractive has advanced many fold beyond what it has upon the island.] Again it is said, and especially by those of the class last referred to, that a large part of the newcomers to the island, are engaged in business in New York - their capital and their paramount interests are there - they do not incorporate themselves with the islanders proper: they regard the island only as a lodging place and are unable to [apply intelligence to,] give deliberate and intelligent study to its requirements or enter with [public] spirit upon projects for its improvement by public means. [Whether the complaints thus in part indicated have a sound basis of fact or not, there is no question that [they] complaints such as we have indicated are so generally entertained, so often publickly as well as privately expressed, as to constitute a very great evil. [Then It's] effect is to discourage private enterprise, to and thus to depress values to injure business of all kinds and thus to rob every citizen of the island of the just revenue and profit of his property and labor. [It] They thus doubtless tend[s] to keep in a comparatively desert condition many a locality where a Paradise should bloom. [*Fr to next page A*] [*Fr 4 p. forward B*] Population, Commerce, Wealth, Social advantages are crowding in every direction around us, and the question presses why the immense natural resources of Staten Island, should not be opened to the enterprises of capital and taste, and an extension of the improvements going on in every other direction - why the bold and ingenious spirit of the time which turns copper into gold should here suffer gold to be turned into copper? [The depreciation of market value alone although but an incident can scarcely be regarded with indifference by any one. Even those who have bought4 [and improved their property, with no expectation or desire for sale, can scarcely be indifferent to the enhancement of its market value, if they consider in how many contingencies of very possible and very frequent occurrence, such enhancement of market value may be of importance to the comfort of their families and the preservation of their own fortune.] [But here it must be observed that] There are those who habitually characterize nearly all the statements to [such reports] [as] which [and] many as we have referred [to] as grossly exagerated [if not] wholly unfounded. [Many feel aggrieved by them and consider] It is even claimed that it is chiefly through such carelesss and mendacious complaints that the value of real estate upon the island has failed to advance as rapidly as elsewhere [There is no doubt thus have the frequent reiteration of them has had the effect to] [The desire to maintain the injustice of the objections to the island has even perhaps [doubtless] to some extent educated a disposition to resist schemes of improvement.] Your Committee finds that there is a decided difference of judgment among its own members as to the weight which should be attached to some of them [the reports unfavorable to the Island.] and especially as to the means by [ease with] which they may be effectivally silenced [the grounds of them may be removed.] It is but just to our fellow islanders to attribute some part of that backwardness to unite in works of public interest which is said to characterize them rather to similar differences of conviction than to lack of public spirit. For this reason your committee will [suggest that the Board should refrain from the framing and discussion of plans of improvement until a [searching inquiry shall have been made us to the real inconveniences and defects of the island, and a] thorough investigation shall have him made of the various alledged grounds of complaint. The real truth in these matters, and the exact value of each in its influence upon the prosperity of the island, should be clearly established if possible [in each of] in our minds. before in enter upon the work [This having been accomplished, we shall be better prepared] of planning improvements [*visit*] to give just weight and importance to each requirement to undervalue none - and shall be more likely to comprehend the remedy of several defects, and to designate more accurately the respective defects and remedies in regard to each work of improvement or amendment of law that we may recommend. Entertaining these convictions, your committee have not thought it best to propose as elaborate a form of organization for business as may be eventually necessary - They will recommend you to give a more permanent [to form a standing] committee [by whom] the duty of suggesting additional committees for the digest and elaboration of schemes of improvement, and projects of acts for the Commission at a later stage of its work, [may be performed with]]5 [deliberation and a fuller knowledge of what it may be desirable to undertake.] In conclusion as your Committee has the honor of presenting the first formal document which will come before you, it may be permitted a few observations upon the general spirit and purpose which should govern our counsels There can be no doubt, in the judgment of the committee, that [the] errors [and neglect dullness] of public opinion & dullness of public spirit have worked greatly to our injury, and that it is of the highest importance that [it] the popular understanding should be enlightened and aroused as the most vital condition of [relief] general improvement. Whatever is pertinent to the causes of our grievances, and the facilities for removing them, cannot be [rejected as immaterial.] too soon, too fully or too clearly made known to all. That for all real grievances ample remedy can be applied is rendered certain by the consideration that in no respect are the natural conditions of Staten Island inferior to districts which are advancing far more rapidly - and in very few respects is she without very decided natural advantages. The difficulty must be wholly with the people and can be overcome at will. Even those of the natural features of Staten Island which are quoted as an exception to her general character, are capable with taste and enterprize and at very moderateexpense, of adding unique and peculiar features to her attractions - Her rugged hillsides may be adorned with terraced gardens like those of Italy, with hanging groves and picturesque chalets - her solitary beaches converted into fashionable resorts for sea bathing like those of Margate, Brighton and Boulogne - Even her salt meadows bording the Kills and the Lower Bay, may at a comparatively small expense be made to rival the Canal Gardens of Holland, and the Canal streets of Venice "That saw from out the waves, her structures rise "As at the touch of an enchanter's wand." Let us especially [always] bear in mind that what ever adds to the attractions of any [one] part of the island benefits all parts. Increasing [It adds to] the business and population in that part, [and] it increases the demand for land, and the number of purchases; prices rise and the [and prices rise all over the island. The influence extends all over] relative valuation of all land on the island is affected [will continue]. Raise the lowest in grade, and the highest will rise in a corresponding ratio. By this process in fact a quantity of cheap land disappears from the market, to be replaced of necessity by dearer, which naturally from the increased demand rises also in market value. On the other hand anything harmful to the value of real estate in any part of the island, contributes [is used] to give a name and character6 to the whole. It is all referred to as "Staten Island" To discriminate justly requires care and attention on the part of those who would be purchasers and these the whirl and hurry of business prevent. By rumors careless in their origin, by [prejudices and notions founded on facts] [based on] statements not wholly untrue but of very limited application, the disparagement of Staten Island property has without doubt been greatly and hurt unjustly [been hitherto in a great degree produced.] To remove the occasion of prejudice, to raise the reputation of the whole is altogether the easiest way to totally ? [remove] the disparagement:- And for this the facilities are ample - What we principally need is a thorough knowledge of whatever defects really exist [and the cultivation of an enlightened public spirit. This and harmonious co-operation will relieve in a great measure the necessity of special legislation, and the expensive services of officials.] exist, a resolute determination to cooperate in remedying them & the general cultivation of an enlightened, conciliatory & generous public spirit We recommend that the Commission be organized by the adoption of the following Bye Laws: First. The Officers of this Commission shall consist of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary and a Treasurer, to be elected by ballot. [*Adopt*] Second. It shall be the duty of the President to preside at meetings of the Board to regulate the order of business thereat and decide all questions [*Adpt.*]according to his judgment based upon the most approved rules and practice of deliberative assemblies, subject to the right of appeal to the Board. Third. [*Adopted*] The Vice President shall take the duties of the President in his absence. Fourth. [*Adopted*] In the absence of the President and Vice President at any meeting a Presiding officer shall be chosen without ballot from the members present. Fifth. [*Adopted*] The Secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings and Regulations of the Board and shall give notice by mail duly stamped and deposited in the post office, addressed to such member of the Commission at his Post Office address. Sixth. [[*On Table*]] [*Adopted Aug 1st*] The Treasurer shall collect such sums from the Board of Supervisors of Richmond County as the Commissioners may direct. Such monies shall be collected only upon the warrant of the President or Vice President countersigned by the Secretary. The Treasurer shall also pay such sums as the Commi[ttee]ssion may from time direct upon the Warrant of the President or Vice President countersigned by the Secretary. Proper books of account of such receipts and disbursements shall be kept and a report made by him [as at each next [?] succeeding meeting of the commission] [whenever required by the Commision] at each next succeeding meeting of the Board, [or [?]]Seventh. [*Adopted*] There shall be an Auditing Committee consisting of three members to be [elected by ballot] appointed by the President, to whom the accounts of the Treasurer shall be submitted and who shall report thereon once in three months or as often as may be required by the Commission.[*8in Elements*] Eighth [Rule 53.] No person shall enter into any contract, incur [incur] any liability or make any disbursement under the act appointing this commission, without an express vote specifying the authority for such contract, liability or disbursement. & even then only as hereinafter in this ByLaw [rule] authorized. [All resolutions calling for or leading to expenditures for the uses & purposes of the Commission shall before adoption be referred to & reported on by the Committee on Disbursements.] Every claim for disbursements on account of the Commission [mentioned in the third section of [the] [said] Act [appointing this commission] shall be presented to the [said] Executive Committee setting forth the [terms on which the claim is based] basis of the same & the name of the bona fide holder[s] or holders thereof which claim shall be verified by affidavit of the claimant in the forum presented for the verification of town charges; & until said Committee shall report and their [such] report [to] be attached to said claim, bill of particulars & affidavit that such expense & every part thereof has been actually & reasonably incurred in good faith in carrying out the purpose & intent of said Act & is in all results justified. [which report] such claim shall not be voted by the Commission either to be paid or to be certified to the Board of Supervisors or for payment. Provided however that the Executive Committee [on Disbursements by & with the advice & consent of the President & Secretary] may at any time [provide] [or endorse with] such stationery only as shall be indispensably necessary to enable to Club to keep the accord of the Commission & give the notices required by these rules or by order of this commission. & a place for its meetings _ & maps _ & Rule 54 is copyist: not meeting or Clay for the two last - [may incur for] shall be authorized to incur expenses for necessary printing securing a room or the petty incidental expenses [authorized by the commission or the Executive Com.]Eleventh No measure or Bill shall be adopted by the commission to be presented with legislative bill with the endorsement of the until some shall have received their [?] readings previous to the final passage & the third reading shall be on a day at least one week subsequent to that on which the bill passed in Committee of the whole.7. Ninth 9th [Seventh] [Eighth] [adopted] At a meeting of the Commissioners thirty thirty [twenty-five] shall form a quorum. Tenth [Eighth] [Ninth] Tenth [Adopted] There shall be an Executive Committee, consisting of the officers of the Board, and such other members of the Commission as shall be hereafter named. [of which the vice President shall be Chairman] All other Committees shall be appointed by the President and shall choose their own Chairman unless otherwise provided for in their Bye Laws or ordered by the commission: and the names of all other committees shall be announced at the session of the commission creating them, unless the Board shall then otherwise direct. [All committees shall choose their own Chairman.] Twelfth [Tenth] [Ninth] [Tenth] Adptd No? The Bye Laws may be altered or amended at any meeting of the Board, on proposal of amendment submitted in writing at a previous meeting. [[Tenth.] Eleventh Table [A] No debts shall be contracted unless by a resolution of the Board of Commissioners, unless for necessary printing, securing a Room or other petty incidental expenses authorized by the Commissioners or the Executive Committee. Eleventh Table Matter No vote shall be taken on any question of authorizing the contracting of a debt or the auditing or a bill or charge unless on motion of a member of the Executive Committee and][when a majority of such committee are present.] [Twelfth. My Commissioner having notice and absent at three successive meetings of the Commission without previous have or excuse allowed by the Commissioners shall be deemed to have declined to serve. A copy of this Bye Law shall be personally served if practicable by the Secretary on every Commissioner, as soon as may be conveniently done with notice of the time and place of the next meeting.] not adopted Thirteenth(?) Resolved that the Committee on Preliminary Inquiry and Organization is authorized to inquire and report upon the causes which [stand] are thought to stand in the way or which may be thought likely hereafter to stand in the way of the [prosperity of the improvement of Staten Island] prosperity of Staten Island, so far as it may be proper for this Commission to consider the same, and that for this purpose they be authorized to take tests may and procure evidence Your Committee also beg to submit the following drafts of Resolutions designed to render effective the recommendations of their report. Resolved that the Committee on Organization be continued under the title of the Committee of Preliminary Inquiry and Organization. Resolved [that the Committee of Preliminary Inquiry /Organization [be authorized] is authorized to inquire and report upon the causes [and] which are thought to stand or [are] to be [thought] likely to stand in the way of the prosperity of Staten Island and [must] is instructed especially to investigate [the] complaints of malaria, [of] defects in the means of communication with New York, of general defects in roads and public [in roads and public] places, as to public debts, taxes assessments and defects of law and administration, as to as to education, as to provisions of water and provisions for the removal of tras offal and wastes. the condition of the island in respect to provision of water and the removal of [wastes] offal and wastes; in respect to means of education, in respect to public debts, taxes, assessments, [administration] law and administration and [relations with the interests in common with the interests of the people in connection[?] with those of the national government, the State [and] the metropolis [on the island] and Benevolent Corporations upon the island.]Your Committee also recommend the passage of the following ResolutionsThe Committee also recommend the adoption [adopting] by the Board of the following Resolutions: Resolved. That the following named Special Committees be appointed with instructions to report progress at each regular meeting of the Executive Committee, of which their several chairmen shall be en Office members, and also at the earliest practicable date to report in full to the Commission First. A Committee of Inquiry whose duty it shall be to report upon the causes of Malaria affecting any part of the island: what evidence if any there is that thee can be removed by public works, and if so what is the character of such works: and generally any information likely to instruct and guide the Commission in devising me asures for improving the health of the island so far as affected by malaria. Second A Committee of Inquiry in regard to facilities of travel by Ferries and main roads connecting with them, whose duty it shall be to report upon the defects of the present lines of communication with New York: how far those for which the owners of Ferry boats are reponsable, on proper representation [having them properly represented to them] thereof, may be expected to be remedied by them: how far they could probably be remedied by appeal to courts of Law: what are the present duties and privileges of the Ferry owners and how long they are to continue; in regard to [the] alleged defects [of] affecting health & safety on the [ventilation and wholesomeness of] the Ferry Boats, [the adequacy of their provisions against fire, and generally for the safety of passengers in case of disaster:] also upon the adequacy, directness and convenience of the internal means of communication between different quarters of the island and the Ferries - Also as to the effect of the present exclusive dependence on ferries for connection with the mainland and with New York, and upon the probable value as compared with the probable cost of connections by means of Bridges or Tunnels. and generally by what character of measures, communication with New York may be expected to be improved. Third. A committee of Inquiry in respect to Highways, pleasure grounds and pleasure Travel, whose duty it shall be to report in what respects the present roads, and the existing system of road making, repair and road side treatment are ill adapted to maintain and increase the prosperity of the island and by measures of what general character [what should be the general plan and character of the] improvements [required] in these respects may be expected to be gained. Fourth. A Committee of Inquiry in respect to water supply and sewerage whose duty it shall be9. to report whether wells and cisterns can be depended on as a safe and wholesome means of water supply in communities so dense as are likely to soon be found on certain parts of the island, and what other obvious sources of supply are available: also whether a general sewer system is necessary in any parts of the island, and whether any system for the disposal of household wastes is desirable to be established by law other than now exists. Fifth. A committee of Inquiry as to public debts, taxes & assessments & as to defects of Law, Legislation and administration [as] affecting the prosperity of the island. Resolved. That the Executive Committee be and is hereby instructed to advertize the desire of the Commission to receive information, suggestions and advice, and to advise the public how communications for this purpose should be addressed: also to obtain a tracing [tracery] of the U.S. coast survey map of the island upon the largest scale, and if practicable one copy of the same upon a reduced scale for the use of each Committee of the Board: also such copies of other surveys, maps and records and such other means of topographical and statistical information as in their judgment will essentially aid the Commission in its action, provided that the total expenditure for this purpose shall not exceed the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars. Resolved that it shall be the duty of the Executive Committee after having been advised by the conclusions of the several Committees of Enquiry to prepare and lay before the Commission at the earliest practicable day, a report embodying a schedule of particulars to which the attention of the Commission is especially demanded, and with reference to which plans of improvement are especially required: They shall at the same time recommend to the Commission such further organization of Committees with reference to the preparation and discussion of plans of Improvement as shall seem to them desirable. The Committee believe that they have thus provided so far as in their power all necessary organization of the Commission at the present time, and also for securing a plan of such additional elements of organization as upon more deliberate and mature consideration shall be deemed desirable X Respectfully submitted. Staten Island July 25th 1870.hundred and fifty dollars. Resolved that the several Committees of Inquiry shall be permitted and are requested to ask the assistance of any persons whose information or judgment upon the subjects of their inquiry they may deem valuable and that such persons may be elected by each committee to be honorary members thereof; provided that such election shall give them no rights of voting or otherwise but only to advise and assist in the investigations and deliberations of the Committee. Resolved that the several Committees of Inquiry shall be permitted and are requested to confer together in joint Committee if two or more upon any matters coming before either of them the investigation and through understanding of which promises to be aided by such cooperation and that join reports may be made in lieu of the district reports called for from such Committee, whenever preferred by a majority of any joint committee.[*207 249 119 ----- 130*] [by supper time to farms a hundred miles away. In travelling we may often see posters, even at remote way-stations, [posters] advertising matinee performances at the city Theatres. If we leave the rail, push out on the prairie and visit any [farmer who has been settled where he is and prosperous for twenty years] long established & prosperous farmer we shall find other and abundant evidence of a great change from what [I] not long since we thought the most essential characteristics of rural life. In [the] furniture, dress, viands, as well as in [the] conversation, [we shall] there are signs of close intimacy with the town - Servants and laborers are foreigners who have been found at Intelligence offices and we shall hear the complant that only the poorest [will come to the country] who can not get employment in town will [come to the] stay in the country. [Y] We] 124Education Tapes A Committee of Inquiry upon the metropolitan special interests of Staten Island as a district quarter of the metro polis, whose duty it shall be to report what special duties & privileges if any belong [Staten] to the Island by reason of its position and [duties rather more than to any other ampng the various][a Com. of Inquiry as to the [common] interests of which Staten Isd has in common with Manhatten Isd [and] Kings County, and other [parts of the] districts [as] constituting together the metropolis of our country whose duty it shall be to report whether there are any special [deh] duties or functions which by reason of its natural posi] 2 [special] natural conditions more than to any other of the various districts which will be combined with [centering upon] New York to make up the metropolis [Manhattan Island will may be expected to together not be constitute the metropolis of the Nation;] [by what character of means if any which this commission could prefer by command to be taken it can be [best] led to assume these duties + privileges [and bear its proper part with]]districts [which with ????] surrounding [mainly the present city] the city of New York 3 whether by any and if so by what means its present -- -- in this respect are liable to the lost or seriously dim minded, + whether by any + if so by what means which this Commission completely recommend to be taken, they may be guarded saved more -- + surely established + developed.[a Committee of Inquiry as to the part which [Staten Island could it is desirable that Staten Island, by reason of its position and special natural conditions [is now particularly adapted to take should take the] among the various districts [which will hereafter combine to be associated are likely in the] with advantage to itself, to the state of the country at large] 4 also to report upon the real estate held upon the island [for the] by or for the City or State of [the] New York or the Federal Government [and whether without disadvantage to the special purposes for which such real estate is held] x [or for any benevolent purpose of a general character]and whether there are any [class] means which this Commission could properly recommend to be taken, by which 5 ment, [of] or [for any] by any association for the public benefit & by what character of means if [any] by and [whether] without disadvantage to the special purposes for which it [has been acquired] [or] is [holds] now held, it could be so administered [or managed more] [for the permanent advantage] [of this island, the metropolis,] [the state in the or the nation.] as whether save the special interests which this Committee [may have to examine [s is] will be required to consider.or a Special Committee of Inquiry in respect to education whose duty it shall be to report upon [the deficit] in what respects the people of Staten Island are [less favorably] provided with less satisfactory means of education than the most favored communities & in what way improvement may be hoped to be gainedThe Committee deem it [very] [important] best that before proceeding to devise [lay out] a scheme of new works for the improvement of the island, a substantial agreement should be reached by the members of the Commission as to the [principal] points upon which improvements are most important to be made[which abst] the various general circumstances which obstruct the prosperity of the island [and which with] and with direct reference to the remedy of which the detailed organization of the commission should [be planned] be prepared.Before proceeding to discuss projects of improvement and before signing up funding Committees with reference to such discussion, the Committee deem it important that a much more thorough inquiry should be made than it has been in their power to undertake in regard to the causes which have been and are likely to be obstructive to the general prosperity of the island.The result of such an inquiry pursued with impartiality by representatives of every part of the island would in the judgment of the Committee be a most important [step] means of reconciling interests now in conflict, abating jealousies and opening the way to [undertakings for the general] [bene which all] a general agreement [of] in undertakings of a comprehensive character in which all would [will benefit] see their benefit.the Committee, therefore, after repeated meetings and very much debate, have unanimously agreed to report the series of By laws which follow, [and] and which will be found to present an incomplete scheme of organization for the ultimate working purposes of the Commission, and to ask [your] [leave to] additional powers and leave to [extend] [them] sit further for the purpose of preparing a report upon the [causes]X [(insertion)] no undertakings of a public character can be planned which will not be adapted with slight modifications to aid in the accomplishment of more than one end. The pipe or culvert which is intended [to drain] merely to drain a road may by a slight change of location and increase of size drain a [pestilential] swamp as well. Before [any] the project of any new work is [planned] entertained therefore, [the Commission] fairness to all concerned requires [should have before it at,] that the Commission should try to gain a complete view of [all results] [desirable to be accomplished] the various wants of all parts of the island.Resolved that the Chairman of the Several Committees of Enquiry shall report [as] their proceedings [pf the] fortunes to them to the Executive Committee [and that] a each [shall at the last make a full report to the Board]Resolved that at each meeting of the Executive Committee the Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry, state if required report [progress] the proceedings of said CommitteesIt shall be the duty of the Secretary to notify each Commission of the Organization of the Commission with the request that he will dignify in writing his acceptance or declination and a neglect to notify the secty of such intention shall after [3] regular meeting be [unrefuted?]That it is the duty of the Commission to devote itself first to[* X *]Your Committe having been directed to report some plan for determining who of the commission named in the Ace accept the position of commissioners and who if any decline to serve, present the following [additional Bylaw] draft of the Resolution. They are unable, however, to recommend its adoption believing that no action on the subject is at present desirable. [*Negated*] [* ? Twelfth *] [*as a resignation of the office of commissioner _ *]Resolved that with the presentation of a plan of organization as above furnished, the terms of office upon the Executive Committee of the chairman of the Committees of Inquiry shall cease.Over thirty years ago, it is said, & for example, a somewhat far sighted, comprehensive and systematic application of capital to the improvement of a complete district was made at New Brighton, the consequence was not only a [rapid] great immediate advance in the value of the land improved [at the time] but is seen to this day in the fact that [the] a greater number of real and elegant [villas] houses are to be found upon the ground with less of shabby vacancies, and a better average condition of roads [and walks] and generally of all urban conveniences in association with rural beauty and fine prospects [than in any other district] [of equal length and breadth] and consequently a constant higher general value of real estate than in any other district of equal breadth & length upon the island. [It] But it is claimed that even here the value of real estate is far below what it would be had the scope of the policy of combined improvement another ground to which it applied been larger; that the [forlorn, unimproved character] neglected aspect of some parts of the not district neighborhood indicative of [public] less expectations and ambitions or of feebleness & poverty, and threatening an early environment of the district by a close and squalid settlement have been & are a serious injury to it. [repair the island, [and what]] [[is more] [also] It follows, as a matter of course,] [say there in quote!] [that to this day the value of real] [estate [is rew] is higher in that] [district than in any other] [upon the island. [Pret] The causes] [and obstructions to include reference] [has been made we supposed ] [to have alive limited] [[the] such improvements and] [such results to the district] Had there been then a more general spirit of cooperation and combination and a more liberal application of study and taste to public purposes at that time [they] [would have] the additions of New [??] would, it is imagined, have been much greater and [would] might extended on the whole island. [and its beauty and convenience][its population and wealth, and finally the value of its real estate would have been manifold what they now are] Evidence [of the pointing to the same conclusion] enforcing the same lesson [upon us] is drawn from experience elsewhere, as at several pints on the [Hu] banks of the Hudson, where under the influence of liberal measures of public and general improvement the real estate of the districts [fo] having much less mature attraction that many on Staten Island, ha[ve]s advanced in fifteen years fully fifteen fold in value. [?] It is claimed that the same result might be obtained here, may still be obtained here by the adoption of a general policy of imprmnt sufficiently large and liberal to comprehend and affect the reputation of the island as a whole.hundred and fifty dollars. Resolved that the Several Committees of Inquiry be requested to [take] ask the assistance of any whose [judgment] information or judgment upon the subjects of their inquiry they may deem valuable, and that they be requested to confer together [as] in joint Committees upon any [matters of Enquiry which are found] matters coming before them which it may be desireable to extend over more than one of the several fields of Inquiry given them.] Resolved that [any] evry member of the Commission shall be entitled to take part in the inquiries and investigations of each Committee of Inquiry [and also] to engage in the debates, [but that only] and to exercise all the duties of a member of the same except only that of voting, and that it is expected and desired that all members of the Commission shall contribute each aid to such committees on their respective labors as they may be able to do--the members of the Committees having solely depended upon [solely], however, to investigate the subjects presented to them thoroughly and [exhaustively] as far as practicable exhaustively-Resolved that it shall be the final duty of each of the General Committees of Inquiry to give to the Board in a concise form the conclusions at which they have arrived founded upon the evidence they have obtained, and to present such evidence in the form of communication record, reports of verbal testimony, and memoranda of observations, from appendix to this report