FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 17 



commendable interest. Subsequently to the filling of these 

 vacancies, one of the original appointees of 1890 resigned 

 his scholarship through lack of interest in his work, and an 

 announcement was issued in November stating that the 

 vacancy will be filled in March next, on the result of 

 examinations. 



An important addition to the conveniences of the Lodge 

 has been made by providing hot water for the bath room. 

 The gardening and other horticultural periodicals taken at 

 the Garden are carried to the Lodge on their receipt, and 

 allowed to remain on file in the reading room for a reason- 

 able time, after which they are returned to the Garden 

 library. In addition to these current numbers of journals, 

 the reading room contains a reference library of about 75 

 volumes relating to practical gardening. 



When the course of study for garden pupils was out- 

 lined, three years ago, provision was made for carrying it 

 through six years if necessary, in order that the subjects 

 it was desired to teach might receive ample attention. It 

 was evident to me at the time that the course was much 

 longer than was desirable, and I hoped to be able to shorten 

 it considerably after testing practically the time needed for 

 the several studies. Such a test has been made now, and 

 on the 9th of March last the original resolution of the 

 Board * was modified in such a manner as to shorten the 

 course to four years, without omitting any of the manual 

 work or any of the studies originally included. Vacations 

 have now been fixed so as to comprise the first two weeks 

 in July, and two weeks extending from the 21st of Decem- 

 ber to the 4th of Januar}^, inclusive. 



In its present form the work of the scholarship course is 

 divided as follows. All of the first year is given to man- 

 ual work, as is half of each day during the remaining 

 three years. The other half of the last three years is 



Report, 1890, p. 94. 



