§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the First Commissioner of Works, If he has yet obtained any reliable opinion of the cause of the frightful mortality among the trees in Kensington Gardens this season, which seems to threaten their early extinction, and any suggestion of any means by which their places may be supplied by trees which will not succumb to the urban climate?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREThe mortality of the trees in Kensington Gardens is not, I am sorry to say, of recent date. It has been progressing at a rapid rate for four or five years past, and it has not the least reference to the application of clay. Two years ago a Committee, consisting of my Predecessor (Mr. Adam), Mr. Mitford, Sir Joseph Hooker, and Mr. Clutton, investigated the cause of this mortality; and they came to the conclusion that it was due—first, to the fact that the trees had originally been planted too closely, and had not been properly thinned some 40 or 1373 50 years ago; and, secondly, to the ground not being properly drained. They considered that it would be useless to plant trees in place of the dead ones unless the land could be properly drained, and that the proper course would be to wait till a clearance of a part could be effected, and then to drain and replant the part thus cleared.