ol 
evident, also, that diminishing financial support makes it corre- 
spondingly difficult for an institution to meet greatly increasing 
demands for service. Quantitatively stated, public use and public 
demands upon the Brooklyn Botanic Garden have increased from 
7 to 233 per cent. (depending upon the activity) during the past 
two years, as shown in the following statement which gives the 
percentages of increase of 1923 as against 1921. In the mean- 
time our municipal appropriation for maintenance has decreased 
I2 per cent. 
PERCENTAGES OF INCREASE AND DECREASE, 1921-1923 
Per Cent. 
Te NuiMbemrotevisitings clasSesac. .- case sere ree Increase 65 
2. Attendance of visiting classes...........-..2-.05- ss 00 
3. Percentage of schools using the Garden.......... i 16 
4. Number of potted plants placed in schoolrooms.... 233 
5. Number of seed packets supplied to children...... a 22 
6. Attendance at Botanic Garden Classes........... iy 2I 
7, Total attendance, all lectures and classes......... uy 37 
s\Attendance, in library. jes cocce ct bene men ee ms 28 
g. Attendance at conservatories.................05. im a 
10. Number of pages of research published (1741)... : 
11. Municipal appropriation for maintenance....... Decrease 12 
The inference from the above statement does not need to be 
pointed out. Jf the Botanic Garden is to continue to meet the 
needs and demands of the local community, and to discharge its 
educational and sctentific obligations—the activities for which it 
was established—it must have adequate financial support. This 
it has not had for several years. 
Needs of the Garden 
The shortest treatment of this topic would be to refer readers 
to the preceding Annual Report, for most of the needs there 
listed remain wholly or largely unfulfilled. They should be kept 
continually before us until met. The situation developing as a 
result of the long-continued failure to meet these needs becomes 
more serious each year. They are nearly all summed up in the 
one urgent need of additional endowment. 
For the first time in the history of the Garden our annual budget 
(that for 1924) has been adopted at a total figure of about $1,000 
