38 
It was Louis Agassiz who found a logical place for the comment 
just quoted, in his AWethods of Study in Natural History, pub- 
lished in 1870. 
When the world-wide economic depression began in 1930 it was 
institu- 
not only private incomes that suffered. The budgets « 
tions—hospitals, colleges, museums, botanic gardens—were also 
seriously affected. The budget of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
fell from $228,867 in 1930 to $168,250 in 1934—a loss of $60,617. 
The recovery in 1936 was only $14,852. 
Such loss of income of institutions was inevitable and logical, 
but it is also equally logical that with general economic recovery, 
Mf which there are now faint signs, the budgets of those insti- 
Y 
tutions which foster knowledge and all that goes to make uy 
civilization should also begin to recover their former effectiveness. 
An annual attendance equal to more than one-half the population 
f Brooklyn leaves no doubt but that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
is meeting a real need in the intellectual and recreational life of 
the City. It merits financial as well as moral support commen- 
surate with the value and extent of its services to the community. 
To a large extent the Botanic Garden is dependent upon annual 
contributions of funds; but when persons with large incomes be- 
come obligated to hand over in taxes to various divisions of gov- 
ernment up to as much as 75 per cent. of their incomes (in the 
higher brackets), their voluntary contributions to public institu- 
tions must be correspondingly diminished. [very educational and 
charitable institution in America has come to realize this. In the 
— 
case of the Botanic Garden, since 1918 annual contributions o 
thousands of dollars from individual donors have fallen to hun- 
dreds of dollars. Some have ceased entirely. Clearly, the day of 
large benefactions from living donors is, in general, over. The 
basis of hope for benefit: from bequests becomes increasingly 
slender. 
The Botanic Garden is face to face with the most serious finan- 
936 is 
that in 1937 we shall, for the first time in the history of the Garden, 
— 
cial situation in its history. The indication at the close of 
pk 
begin a new year without a balanced budget. And yet our needs 
and the demand of the public for the services we render will be 
greater than ever. Any possibility of enriching and extending our 
