A GARDEN NOTE-BOOK 



which was deemed a suitable location for the tree 

 museum. A poor farm it was, yet on it the univer- 

 sity agreed to grow "every tree and shrub able to 

 endure the chmate of Massachusetts"; and here I 

 use Professor Sargent's own words, recently writ- 

 ten: "It is safe to say that none of the men directly 

 engaged in making this agreement had any idea 

 what an arboretum might be, or what it was going 

 to cost in time and money to carry out the agree- 

 ment to cultivate all the trees and shrubs which 

 could be grown in Massachusetts, and certainly 

 none of them were more ignorant on this subject 

 than the person selected to see that this agreement 

 was carried out. He found himself provided with 

 a worn-out farm, partly covered with native woods 

 nearly ruined by pasturage and neglect, with only 

 a small part of the income of the $100,000 available, 

 for it had been decided by the university that the 

 whole income could not be used until the principal 

 had been increased to $150,000 by accumulated 

 interest. He was without the support and encour- 

 agement of the general public, which knew nothing 

 and cared less about an arboretum and what it 

 was expected to accompUsh." 



"The person selected" of the paragraph above 

 was none other than the first director of the Arnold 



170 



