538 AVERY, JR. 



A few botanic gardens have been beautifully landscaped, and some are 

 large enough to be pleasing to drive through in motor cars in blossom time. 

 Others are smaller and more intimate and occasionally show the proper 

 landscape use of carefully chosen species and varieties of ornamental plants — 

 the best that decorative horticulture offers. Some have magnificent special 

 exhibits, such as great hedge displays. Still others are made up of many smaller 



1500 



1200 



900 



CARNEGIE FOUNDATION 

 PUBLIC LIBRARIES 



600 







1890 1892 



1920 



Fig. 1. Carnegie libraries. 1,572 library buildings were erected in the United 

 States by Carnegie grants to municipalities. Mr. Carnegie made available nearly 

 $40 million for this purpose. Libraries were built in 46 states; 22 states got 25 

 or more libraries each. Canada also received 125 libraries, and some 700 were 

 constructed in other British Commonwealth countries. This was a tremendous 

 stimulus to the growth of the free public library system throughout the world. 

 Compare with graph on total public libraries. {Data from Carnegie Grants for 

 Library Buildings 1890-1917. Compiled by D. R. Miller. 40 pp. Carnegie Corpora- 

 tion of New York, 1943.) 



gardens, the kind any of us might like for our own. From the last, in particular, 

 people may learn what plants to use in their gardens, and in what combina- 

 tions, and what constitutes good garden design. Such displays make a good 

 beginning, but attractive and interesting though they may be, it takes a 

 popular educational program to "put them to work." Too few public gardens 

 and arboretums have really put their plant collections to work for the 

 average citizen. 



Perhaps the most effective way to reach the public is through a program 

 of well-organized popular courses in which people can learn by doing. Such 

 courses might meet three to six times at most, for the greater the number of 

 meetings the less the popular interest. The traditional semester-long courses 

 associated with the captive-type education offered by colleges and universities 



