39 



Resignations and New Appointments 



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Resignation of Dr. Olive, — Dr. Edgar W. Olive, curator of 

 public instruction and also in charge of Plant Pathology at the 

 Garden since September i, 1912, resigned on February 24, to 

 enter business. The resignation took effect on July i. This resig- 

 nation was due to the economic pressure felt since the war by 

 practically all of those engaged in educational and scientific work. 

 The Botanic Garden, like many colleges and universities, is un- 

 able to advance its salaries to a point where they are attractive in 

 competition with the emoluments of business, and many profes- 

 sional men, often late in life, have recently been obliged to change 

 their occupation in order to secure adequate incomes. Dr. Olive 

 had rendered valuable service to the Botanic Garden, and the 



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lesson of his, and other similar resignations throughout the coun- 

 try,, is obvious. If the best men are to be retained in the vital 

 work of teaching and research, and if new men of the first ability 

 are to be recruited, the compensation must be adequate to insure 

 the maintenance of a proper standard of living for a family, a 



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reasonable margin for investment, and freedom from 



economic 



worry. Substantial increases during the past twelve months have 

 not yet brought our curatorial salaries to the figures now being 



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paid to professors in our best colleges, universities, and museums. 

 A New Curator of Plant Pathology. — Subsequent to the resig- 

 nation of Dr. Olive, a generous gift of private funds, acknowl- 

 edged elsewhere in this report, made it possible to reorganize the 

 work for which he was responsible by the creation of a new 

 curatorship of plant pathology, thus permitting the curator of 

 public instruction to devote all of his time to that work which has 



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steadily grown in amount 

 entire time of the new curator for plant disease investigations 

 and administration. Before this report is printed the details of 

 this new curatorship and the appointment thereto of Dr. George 

 M. Reed, for the past two years pathologist in the Office of 

 Cereal Investigations, U. S. Department of Agriculture, will have 

 appeared in the Botanic Garden Rfxord for January, 1921. Dr. 



Reed will enter upon the duties of his new position on January i, 

 1921, . 



and importance, and affording the 



