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IMPROVEMENTS AT BEL1S ON i » — Lavish Planting of Trees and Shrubs Beautify Grounds. fw Restaurant Artistically Decorated and Arranged — Flowers and Plants Brighten Scene. • NEW YORK, X. Y.. May 29.— Visitors to Belmont Park this year will find that the management of the Westchester Racing Association is living up to its promise to maintain Belmont Park as an amusement center of which New York may well be proud. Cnder a plan approved by Major Belmont and his associates many improvements have been installed since last year. Hundreds of trees and shrubs have been planted in various parts of the grounds which were already noted for their aboreal beauty. A further appeal has been made to the public in the completion of a new restaurant which will serve both the patrons of the enclosure and the grandstand, though the spaces are divided by an ornately embellished wall with mirrors that give an impression of added spaciousness. Arrivals at the enclosure entrance will find the hitherto barren area beneath the stand a vista of laurel, box, and orange trees in tubs, with the flower embowered bijou restaurant showing invitingly in the distance. The transformation of this space indicates the versatility of the landscape artist at his best. The restaurant proper overlooks the paddock. When the great windows, with their fifteen foot spans of glass are raised, as they will be in fine weather, the outdoor appeal will be almost as strong as though the tables were set boneath the trees. The outer fringe of the windows have boxes filled with geraniums, as a brilliant decoration. The entire color scheme is aesthetic and restful. The cool gray of the stucco and the warmth of the ornamental red brick employed in the pillars make an artistic background for the masses of hydrangea blooms with which they are festooned. Boxes painted a light green to harmonize with the artistic lattice with which the room is bounded are employed effectively in a space whose beauty must be seen to be appreciated. Scattered at intervals are trees of bay and laurel, with one orange tree in fruit, the whole heightening the impression of the outdoors. The floor is of white and black squares and the entire improvement which reflects the taste of Joseph K. Wid-ener, a member of the Westchester directorate, is artistic in the extreme. The restaurant for the general public is on the track side and accessible from the north. It has the same general scheme of embellishment as the enclosure, though less elaborate. A row of boxes, filled with suberb hydrangeas in full flower along the wall gives a touch of color to an ensemble that is bright and cheerful even on a depressing, rainy day. That many will find both these restaurants delightful lunching places is certain. The scheme of beautification has not been confined to the area beneath the stand. A neatly clipped hedge shows on either side of the judges enclosure, while the back of the building in the rear of the stewards portion of the structure has a window box filled with geraniums to lend a touch of color that is most restful to the eye. That portion of Belmont Park reserved for the Turf and Field club will be none too large to accommodate the membership of the organization which now totals 596 — only four from the reserve of 600. The growth of this club, which has on its roster the names of many of the most prominent members of society in the east, has been remarkable in the past year, when nearly 200 recruits were gained. For the first time in the history of the organization there is a waiting list.
