22 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
to which should be taken, as was expedient, such of the animals as 
might interest the public, the larger portion of the park being still 
considered as a natural preserve where animals need be disturbed by 
no unusual surroundings, and where it was hoped they might, after the 
time necessary for their acclimation, breed their young. 
The maintenance of a park devoted to these purposes, that is, pri- 
marily to useful and scientific ends, and secondly to recreation, seemed 
to those interested in its suecess a legitimate tax upon national re- 
sources, but when Congress decided that one-half of the necessary 
expense should be raised by local taxation it seemed only fit that the 
tax-payers should be heard in their wish to have prominence given to 
the feature that principally interested them, and their chief interest was 
naturally in the Park as a place of recreation. That this was recog- 
nized by a considerable body in Congress became evident from the 
subsequent debates. 
The moral right of the people of the District to ask consideration 
of their wishes for entertainment in return for the outlay which falls 
upon them can not be questioned, and so far as this could be recog- 
nized it introduced atendency to provide an establishment more like 
an ordinary zoological garden, or permanent menagerie, than the com- 
paratively inexpensive scheme at first contemplated. 
In view of the circumstances an appropriation was asked of Con- 
gress, which was believed to be smaller than was consistent with the 
proper ultimate development of the park, but on an estimate which 
proposed to begin on the most economical scale. Thus, for the general 
maintenance of the collection, $35,000 was asked, which is about the 
same as the annual sum spent in the Central Park menagerie, New 
York, having an area of about 10 acres, and at least $10,000 less than is 
spent either at the zoological garden in Cincinnati or Philadelphia, each 
having an area of about 40 acres. When it is reflected that these 
latter enterprises are conducted for business purposes by business men, 
that they have their collections already nearly complete and purchase 
but few new animals, it will be seen that the sum asked for the main- 
tenance of the 167 acres of the National Zoological Park with all the 
expensive animals yet to be procured was certainly not extravagant. 
Congress reduced this estimate to $17,500, a sum for which as a year’s 
experience has now shown the Park can not be maintained. 
For buildings, an appropriation of $36,850 was asked. In this con- 
nection it may be recalled that in the Philadelphia gardens the build- 
ings and inclosures cost $194,705. The sum estimated was intended to 
cover all inclosures and structures of every character indispensable on 
the modest scale proposed. Congress reduced this to $18,000. 
The average expense of preparing such uncultivated grounds in city 
parks elsewhere has proved to be at least $2,900 per acre. The sum of 
$29,500 was asked for that purpose, as no more than sufficient to fit 
