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“radio” (which is only applied physics) represent a truly fabu- 
lous interest on the total amount invested in electrical research 
since the discovery of electricity. The same is true of the annual 
saving in crop-production resulting from the practical application 
of the results of research in plant breeding and in plant physiology 
and pathology. Examples from botanical science could be mul- 
tiplied. 
It is, perhaps, not an extreme statement to say that no invest- 
ment of funds ever yielded larger material returns than invest- 
ment in scientific research. To these material results there must 
be added the intellectual and cultural benefits of such work, the 
value of which to mankind can hardly be overestimated. The re- 
sults of botanical research compare favorably with those in any 
other department of knowledge. 
The research program of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has, 
from the beginning, laid emphasis on those aspects of botany 
which have an applied as well as a cultural value—plant breeding, 
plant pathology, the relation of plants to their surroundings, plant 
physiology. In the current budget nearly 4o per cent. is for ad- 
ministration and only a little more than 20 per cent. for research. 
This relationship should be reversed. To increase our research 
program to twice its present extent would not require any addi- 
tional buildings or grounds, but only a larger income to provide 
for salaries, equipment, publication, and miscellaneous incidentals. 
The present income of the special Research Fund for Plant 
Pathology is $7,500, underwritten by friends of the Garden for 
a period of three years, terminating with the end of 1928. This 
annual income is equivalent to the interest at 514 per cent. (the 
present average yield on all Botanic Garden permanent funds) 
on approximately $140,000. To provide for this work on a scale 
more nearly commensurate with its importance and needs, and to 
extend and enrich our entire program of research to the extent of 
making the fullest use of our present housing and administrative 
facilities would require not less than the income at 5% per cent. 
on $500,000, or $27,500. 
It is hoped that an endowment of not less than this amount 
may be secured before the close of 1928. The Director of the 
Garden will be glad to confer with anyone who may be interested 
