REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 

 To the Director-in-Chief. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report for 

 the year 1910. 



Grounds and Buildings 



The grounds and buildings have been successfully main- 

 tained during the year at a minimum expense; and the 

 amount of damage sustained from storms, fires, and dis- 

 orderly persons has been very slight. 



The growing season was the most severe in the history 

 of the Garden, the unusually wet spring developing heavy 

 foliage with a poor root system, while the prolonged summer 

 drought extracted more water from the leaves than the 

 roots could replace. Although much artificial watering 

 was done, it is feared that there was more damage to the 

 plantations than has yet become manifest. 



In the control of plant diseases, which is always difficult 

 in a large collection of plants, we have been very fortunate. 

 The San Jose and other scale insects, the "red spider," 

 "green fly," and imported elm leaf-beetle, have all been 

 controlled by judicious and opportune spraying; the chest- 

 nut canker has settled its own problem by killing all of 

 the chestnut trees; there remains only the leaf-blight of the 

 plane-tree, which has been very severe for several seasons 

 from about the middle of May to the first of July, and this 

 disease cannot be controlled by ordinary methods. Owing 

 to the growing importance and scope of this work, Mr. 

 Fred J. Seaver, Director of the Laboratories, who has 

 devoted considerable time to plant pathology, has been 

 asked to supervise it. 



The interest shown by the visiting public has been greater 

 than ever before, and a large majority of the visitors have 

 respected the wishes of the management in the use of the 

 grounds, but we have been gradually forced against our 



