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appropriation for 1922 was reduced below that for 1921 by $3436, 

 or nearly 4 per cent., and the appropriation for 1923 is less than 

 that for 1922 by $7,049, or nearly 8 per cent.— a total cut of 

 nearly $10,500 in two years. This total reduction of nearly 12 

 per cent, in the Tax Budget appropriation has necessitated a 

 steadily increasing, diversion of private funds to meet the main- 

 tenance deficit. 



The result has been a crippling and curtailment of our educa- 

 tional and scientific work in the face of steadily and rapidly in- 

 creasing demands for such service as a botanic garden can and 

 should render to the community. 



Need of Increased Endowment 



A situation essentially similar to that above set forth obtains 

 for most of the museums, and other semi-public institutions of 

 Greater New York, and emphasizes the urgent need of placing 

 such institutions on a more secure basis so far as tax budget ap- 

 propriations are concerned. In the meantime it is vitally import- 

 ant that our permanent private funds be greatly increased. At- 

 tention has been called to this in various preceding reports, and 

 the need should be kept constantly before us until it is met. 



In the matter of private endowment the Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden stands at the bottom of the list of the five largest American 

 botanic gardens and independent botanical institutions. The 

 youngest of them all has nearly twenty times as large an endow- 

 ment as the Brooklyn Garden, and none of the income from this 

 fund has to be used to maintain a public park area and garden, 

 but is all available for fundamental botanical research and the 

 necessary maintenance incidental thereto. 



While research is the very life-blood of a scientific institution, 

 it is necessarv for a public Botanic Garden to maintain collections 

 and grounds for public instruction, and to meet the cost of popular 

 educational work with adults and children. This work is organ- 

 ized at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on a scale which is, perhaps, 

 not approached by any other botanic garden in the world. 



Our need of private funds for all purposes, for 1922, was over 

 $33,774, while the private funds budget adopted for 1923 



