24 
Environment of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
The environment of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been a 
favorable one. Property with an assessed valuation (in 1928) 
of $7,000,000 and located near the center of population of the 
City has been assigned to it as a site; some $300,000 (supple- 
mented by about $150,000 of private funds) have been appropri- 
ated by the city for buildings and other permanent improvements ; 
and appropriations for maintenance have been made during the 
past 18 years in the annual tax budget of the City, supplemented 
(as in the case of the permanent improvements), by private funds 
which now, for the second. year, exceed in amount the sum ap- 
propriated by the City. 
When a private individual, not a resident of Brooklyn, pledged 
$250,000 toward the permanent endowment of the Garden, the 
citizens of Brooklyn (and other Boroughs) made generous con- 
tributions in the total sum of nearly $254,000 to supplement and 
secure the initial pledge. The authorities of the Brooklyn Bo- 
tanic Garden have a lively appreciation of these generous gifts 
from individuals as well as of the appropriations of the city 
government, 
Potential Environment 
But what a man does is rightly estimated in terms of his ca- 
pacity for accomplishment. “The outstanding historic illustration 
of this is the widow’s mite. The physicist recognizes potential 
energy, Which is capacity for doing work, and kinetic energy, 
which is measured by work actually done. his is frequently 
illustrated by the water in a mill pond, which represents stored 
energy, available but not being put to use. When the water gates 
are opened the water flows into the machinery of the mill and 
useful work is accomplished—the mill turns out what the people 
need. 
The resources of a city represent potential energy; its educa- 
tional and scientific institutions represent mills capable of turning 
out products which are essential to the life of the community ; 
but they are not able to function if the necessary energy, in the 
form of moral and financial support, is not made available in 
sufficient amount to keep the machinery running. All of this is, 
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