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Park Avenue entrance were commenced by a contractor 
during late summer and are still unfinished, this contractor 
also having far exceeded his specified time. Altogether, the 
experience during the last year with these contracts has been 
disappointing, but the work so far accomplished with them 
is of good quality, and it is hoped that all the work under 
contract may be completed in the spring. The collections 
in all departments have been materially increased by gifts, 
purchases and exchanges. The older plantations have been 
maintained and, in some cases, slightly modified by addition 
and substitution, and additional plantations have been 
established. Direct educational work with the public has 
been continued by means of lectures and by docents, and 
nature-study lectures and demonstrations to children from 
the public schools have been given. Advanced students 
have carried out researches over a wide range of subjects, 
and members of the staff have accomplished considerable 
investigational work. The publications have been con- 
tinued. The number of visitors has apparently been greater 
during 1912 than during any previous year. 
Grading and Drainage 
The knoll of rock just north of the museum building has 
been further leveled and the rock used for the Telford 
foundations of paths in various parts of the grounds, so 
that not much of it now remains; earth and top soil for form- 
ing the final surface here has been brought from points 
within the grounds where it was not needed, and some top 
soil has been carried here by contractors from without the 
grounds for the privilege of dumping. Considerable prog- 
ress has been made on the north side of the approach to 
the Woodlawn Road entrance by permitting contractors, 
without cost to the Garden, to dump surplus earth and 
rock into the marsh which existed there; and the sub- 
surface for paths and planting has also been mostly accom- 
plished in this way. Some 15,000 cubic yards of material 
having thus been obtained during last year and the year 
