27 



ing, construction of walks, bridges, steps, and ten years of main- 



tenance 



$870,000, of which $ 



$5 



funds required by the terms of the Agreement with the City. For 

 the ten-year period the City has appropriated for Botanic Garden 



I 



maintenance only One Dollar for each $5,300 of the total tax 

 budget; for the year 1920 the ratio was One Dollar for each 

 $4,000. The cost for 1920 was at the rate of 3.4 cents for each 

 inhabitant of the Borough, and for the entire ten years 33.5 cents, 



I 1 



but since the cost is distributed over the entire population of 

 Greater New York (over 5,600,000), the actual cost for ip2o is 

 one cent per inliahitant, and less than eight cents for the entire 

 ten years. Moreover, this small expenditure has brought con- 

 tributions of private funds from public-spirited citizens amount- 

 ing to about one third of the municipal appropriations. 



What the Garden Has Meant to Brooklyn 



What service has the Botanic Garden rendered to the City, in 

 return for this expenditure, of money and effort? In the first 

 place, a tract of nearly 50 acres of city property, having an as- 

 sessed valuation of some $2,500,000, and lying idle, serving no 

 useful public purpose, part of it being used only for a dumping 

 ground, and situated at the center of population of the Borough, 

 has been converted into one of the most beautiful and attractive 

 areas in the city, meeting educational and recreational needs of 

 hundreds of thousands annually. The elementary and secondary 

 education of pupils in the grammar and high schools of the city 

 is being enriched, added opportunities for profitable recreation are 

 being afforded, advantages of free public education of adults and 

 .children have been enlarged, the increase and dissemination of 

 useful knowledge in this community and throughout the scientific 



■ h 



and educational world are being promoted, and altogether the 







Borough of Brooklyn and the greater city have been made a 

 better place in which to live. Each year the demands of the 

 public, and its response to the opportunities offered by the Garden 

 have given increasing evidence of the need of a botanic garden 

 in Brooklyn. 



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