33 



Not a day passes that we are not called upon to supply some 

 item of information about plant life to educational, charitable, 

 and commercial institutions, to municipal departments, and to 

 teachers and other individuals. In addition to the lectures, 

 classes, Leaflets, and other publications, the labeled collections of 

 living- plants, the special gardens, the herbarium, and the library 

 are silently but constantly ministering to the needs of the people. 



The Next Ten Years - 



The purpose of the prececlmg overlook of the first ten years 

 of the Garden was to indicate the need of such an institution as 

 this in this community, and the manner and extent to which the 

 Garden has been able to meet this need. But the chief' advantage 



■ 



of looking backward is to obtain perspective, and a better indica- 



tion of the lines along which further development may best 



proceed. ' ' 



In the first years much of our resources, time, and energy 

 went, of necessity, into foundational work. During the next 

 three or four years the grading and planting of the grounds 

 should be well along toward completion, so far as the larger fea- 

 tures are concerned, and from now 



hoped that the best energies of the Garden can be devoted to the 



extension and improvement of botanical investigation and edu- 

 cation. 



Importance of Plant Disease Investigations, — One year ago I 



^ on, mcreasmg yearly, it is 



of establishing at the Botanic Gard 



en a 



urged the desirabihty 

 laboratory or institute of plant pathology, and dwelt upon the 

 economic as well as the scientific importance of this work. As an 

 indication of the former it may be noted here that during the 

 calendar year 1920 over $5,000,000 were paid by the raih-oads of 

 the United States in settlement of claims .for losses due to the 

 spoilage of perishable fruits and vegetables, and this, of course, 

 represents only a portion of the total loss and of claims filed. 

 One carrier alone, with terminal in New York City, paid losses 

 of over $110,000 on apples, over $88,000 on small fresh fruits, 

 over $37,000 on peaches, nearly $50,000 on potatoes, over $15,000 

 on celery, and a total of all claims of this class of nearly 

 $464,000. Much of this loss could be reduced, and some of it 



