SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 21 
Here, as elsewhere, repairs necessitate in the main recon- 
struction, and I have been obliged to rebuild the bridges 
over the little brook that runs through the place. Suitable 
toilet arrangements, in the absence of any system of sewer- 
age, are next to impossible ; but by erecting in the Arbore- 
tum two of the iron structures designed by the J. L. Mott 
Tron Works for park use, in place of the more dilapidated 
of the frame structures formerly located there, and equip- 
ping them as earth closets, the grounds have been made 
rather less repugnant and far more sanitary and convenient 
in this respect. For many years a compost pile has been 
maintained in the Arboretum, because of the convenience of 
this location to the plant houses and Garden. Provision for 
this necessary adjunct of a garden has now been made at 
the stable, so that it will soon be removed to a less con- 
spicuous place. 
The unusual drought of this year showed the necessity of 
a step considered by the Board a year since, — that of pro- 
viding the Garden with a supply of city water. No action 
was taken at that time because it was found on inquiry that 
the Garden had suffered but once in the last twenty-five 
years from a deficient water supply. But so serious was 
the damage done by the exceptional drought this year, and 
so pressing the necessity for a surer and safer supply of 
drinking water, that action could no longer be delayed. 
The institution was therefore connected with the city 
main on Magnolia avenue by laying some 2,000 feet of 6- 
inch pipe on Tower Grove avenue, and carrying two 3-inch 
mains into the Garden, these measuring about 650 feet, and 
serving merely to carry water to afew points from which it 
can be distributed by hose, a more thorough system of 
carrying it through the grounds in pipes remaining for 
future adoption. 
Two wells, notoriously unsanitary, have been closed 
during the year, one of them being filled to the surface. 
Analyses were made of the water of six other wells from 
which the public have been accustomed to drink, and show 
