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snow also increased the difficulty of transportation by rail. On 
February 2d we used the last of our coal, and for some time 
thereafter received only one load of about five tons every two 
or three days. The conservatory collections were saved only 
by the generous loan of a small load of coal by Park Commis- 
sioner Harmon and another load by the subway contractors who 
were operating on Eastern Parkway. 
By moving all the plants from Houses 1-4, 7 and Io into the 
economic house and two wings, and by shutting the heat off from 
about one half of the building, heating only the offices in use 
and the library, we cut down the coal consumption to about three 
tons a day. We observed the second and fourth Garfield (coal- 
less) Mondays, but the saving by doing this was slight, and 
hardly enough to be a factor worth considering, since coal re- 
quired to heat a portion of the building over and above that 
required to save the plants in the conservatories was almost negli- 
gible—probably not more than a quarter of a ton in twenty-four 
hours. We lost several plants, including the Termuinalia tree, 
and all of them suffered more or less, from loss of leaves and 
otherwise, by the great reduction of temperature. 
During February and March coal was received in various sizes 
buckwheat, nut, egg, stove, and some soft coal—sufficient to 
maintain living temperatures in part of the laboratory building 
and plant houses, but not until about March 1, was it possible to 
restore normal temperatures in the plant houses. 
On account of injury to the collections, shortage of labor, and 
threatened shortage of coal during the early fall of 1918, when 
the collections were again congested into smaller quarters, the 
conservatories have remained closed to the public during the 
entire calendar year. 
War Gardens—During the year 342 vegetable gardens, 8 ft. 
by ro ft., and 67 gardens ro ft. by 20 ft., were cultivated on the 
children’s garden plots. The total area actually under cultiva- 
tion was 42,360 sq. ft., or slightly less than one acre (43,560 sq. 
ft.). The total cash value of the crops taken home, estimated 
in terms of the market prices on the day the various crops were 
harvested, was over $4,800. 
It should not be inferred from these figures that, as a com- 
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