48 
by the extension of the brook; construction of fern garden (see 
p. 50) ; new paths made and a hill raised in Japanese garden; and 
about 314 acres of lawn put down on a piece of land just west of 
the museum esplanade. 
It should be said that, for so much of this work as came on the 
new land, the results appear small in comparison with the outlay, 
but it should be added that no land that has ever come to us has 
been so unpromising for a garden, It was used as a dump for 
years, and the accumulated rubbish made a good deal of clearing- 
up necessary before the real work of grading and building the 
brook could begin. This force has also dug hundreds of holes 
for plantings by the gardeners. 
Gardening Force 
A good deal of purely decorative planting, and an increasingly 
larger area under cultivation, has made it necessary to curtail 
the increases to the systematic collections during the year. Ref- 
erence to the number of accessions, especially those raised from 
seed, shows a decrease from 1915. This is an unfortunate neces- 
sity for which the remedy appears to be increased help for this 
force. With 3 gardeners, 2 helpers for part of the time, and 
some assistance from the laboring force, it is impossible properly 
to maintain collections already started and at the same time make 
additions. Shortage of gardeners means not only difficulty in in- 
creasing collections, but more often it means insufficient care of 
existing ones, or worse still, the unskilled attention of substitutes 
who are not trained. Our collections are already becoming suffi- 
ciently valuable so that relatively ignorant help may be a serious 
menace. 
Besides maintenance of existing collections, and in spite of the 
conditions outlined in the preceding paragraph, new work done 
by this force during the year has been as follows: 
1. Planting 160 Austrian pines around the lake. 
2. Planting 72 rhododendrons around the lake. 
3. Arbor-vitae hedge, about 250 ft. long, planted to screen site 
of future nursery. 
4. Planting 120 azaleas in Japanese Garden. 
5. Shrubbery planting at southerly end of esplanade. 
