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continue and extend your present work, in which you have made 
such good beginnings. 
Yours with best wishes, 
L. H. Baitey, President 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Dear Doctor Gager: 
Through your recent letter I am pleased to learn of your plans 
for continuance of your research work along the lines of plant 
breeding and plant diseases. Such investigations are highly com- 
mendable as they cannot fail to result in information of the highest 
scientific value, much of which will be applied in a practical way 
by great agricultural interests of this country. The field to be 
covered in such investigations is broad, and there is little danger 
of conflict of interest with other organizations interested in similar 
researches. In fact, it is my opinion that where such research 
work is properly coordinated, it 1s far better to have several or- 
ganizations attacking the problem, as this will inevitably lead to 
greater advance in knowledge. 
Your work has proved so highly important in the past that I 
trust you will meet with success in your efforts to continue it along 
similar lines in the future. 
Sincerely yours, 
(Signed) CuarLtes D. WaLcorTT, 
Secretary 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
WASHINGTON, D. C 
Dear Dr. Gager: 
I am, of course, very much interested in the plans for securing 
the more permanent endowment of experimental botanical re- 
search in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The record of accom- 
plishment in this line by the Brooklyn Garden is already a most 
creditable one and it would be little short of disastrous to have the 
work interrupted. 
I have always felt that such institutions as the Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden are especially well adapted to serve as centers for funda- 
