REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS. 339 



open park, with suitable walks and roadways. It can hardly fail 

 to become a beautiful, wholesome, and instructive resort, which 

 will be more and more precious as the population grows denser 

 about it." 



From still another point of view, the Professorship of Arbo- 

 riculture and the Arboretum are substantial additions to the 

 Universit}'. The cultivation and preservation of forests will 

 become in no long time a matter of national concern. The 

 natm-al forests of the country are already rapidly disappearing, 

 and wood and timber at no distant day will be scarce and dear 

 commodities, as they have long been in many countries in Europe. 



In April, 1874, Mrs. Motley conveyed all her life interest in 

 the Bussey estate to the President and Fellows of Harvard College, 

 so that the whole estate is now at their disposal. In 1872, the 

 first seed was planted for the Arboretum ; but at that time and up 

 to the spring of 1879 much of the work, such as the raising of 

 plants, seeds, and cuttings, done at the Bussey Institution, was 

 for the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, as well as for the exchanges 

 of the Arboretum. Since 1879, the whole time has been devoted 

 to raising plants for the Arboretum ; and the number of new and 

 rare plants propagated has rapidly increased. 



In 1875, there were one hundi-ed and twenty-eight species raised. 

 In 1877, Mr. Sargent wrote that, judging from the immense 

 number of letters which were annually sent him, there was a 

 steadily increasing interest felt in the Arboretum. It was then 

 but five years since its establishment ; but its usefulness and 

 influence were already evident, and to its influence could be traced 

 the planting during that year of nearly a half million trees in the 

 New England States. 



In December, 1882, an arrangement was made with the Park 

 Commissioners of the City of Boston, which, without interfering 

 with the scientific aims of the Arboretum, will increase its local 

 influence by freely opening its collections to the public, and 

 by seciu'ing for it additional and greatly needed land, suitable 

 and dignified approaches, and carriage drives. 



The objects of the Arboretum may be definitely stated in a few 

 brief words that all can understand. First, a school of Arbori- 

 culture for the study of trees and shrubs and their uses for timber, 



