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The salaries of curatorships in the Garden are less than those 
paid to assistant teachers in the city high schools, and about $1000 
less than the salaries of first assistants (heads of departments) in 
our high schools; they are out of proportion to the academic 
preparation, experience, reputation, and high class of professional 
services required of the incumbents. 
In connection with the matter of salaries, two other considera- 
tions must also be kept in mind. The first concerns the well 
known fact that the cost of living in Greater New York is appre- 
ciably greater than in most other places where relatively higher 
salaries are paid for botanical services. The second refers to the 
extremely advantageous perquisites attaching to professorships 
of botany in our best universities, and to positions in some of our 
secondary schools on private foundations. These include: 
1. Long vacations, giving a period of from three to four months, 
every summer, of entire freedom from administrative and other 
routine duties, offering opportunity, not alone for physical and 
mental recuperation, but for study, research, and writing, or such 
other occupations as tend to increase one’s efficiency oe enhance 
his value to the institution he serves. While the duties required 
of our members of staff are, for the most part, not of a nature 
to make a long summer recess essential, the long vacation has more 
or less weight in adding to the attractiveness of other positions. 
Nevertheless it is largely counterbalanced by certain attractive 
features of curatorships in the Garden. 
2. A sabbatical year, offering leave of absence on either full or 
part salary, and thus affording opportunity for travel, explora- 
tion, or extended studies. I believe that the institutions profit 
quite as much as the individuals from sabbatical leaves, and that 
such an arrangement should be kept in mind as a desirable goal 
for the Garden ultimately to reach. 
Service pensions. The existence, or otherwise, of service 
pensions is often the deciding factor in the choice of one position 
rather than another, and has enabled many institutions to retain 
desirable men who would otherwise have gone elsewhere. Some 
museums as well as universities and other schools now provide for 
retiring allewances, and this should be looked forward to by our 
own institution as a plan to be realized as soon as possible. 
