34 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



of Agriculture must cooperate with at least 100 institutions in the 

 United States. 



Mr. Johnson. Do you think they cooperate in plans better than 

 one conducted entirely by the Agricultural Department? 



Mr. Swingle. I am inclined to think so. 



Mr. Johnson. You have not been dealing with the future without 

 looking toward the necessity of more land? 



Mr. Swingle. Yes ; but I merely say that as Mr. Coville did, it is 

 necessary to have land near by. 



Mr. Johnson. Where is your office? 



Mr. Swingle. In the Department of Agriculture. 



Mr. Johnson. How close to your office now are you doing this 

 work ? 



Mr. Swingle. We have greenhouses a few blocks away, where I 

 am doing some of this work, but some is being done elsewhere. It 

 is necessary to have plant material as close to our office as possible. 



Mr. Johnson. What is it that you can do at this proposed botanic 

 garden that you can not do in the lands alreacty owned or being 

 operated by the Department of Agriculture? 



Mr. Swingle. One is, for instance, the Chinese pear trees. We 

 would not have to send expensive expeditions to the Orient if we 

 could have these trees growing nearby. When they built the new 

 buildings on the Agricultural grounds the pear trees had to be cut 

 down. 



Mr. Johnson. Where were they located? 



Mi'. Swingle. In the Department of Agriculture grounds. 



Mr. Johnson. Has not the Department of Agriculture a lot of 

 laud over on the other side of the river? 



Mr. Swingle. It has land at Arlington, but because of the Govern- 

 ment's immense investment in the Lincoln Memorial and the Na- 

 tional Cemetery at Arlington it makes it doubtful whether that is 

 the best locality for such a large farm, and it may have to be aban- 

 doned some day. 



Mr. Moore. The enlargement of Arlington Cemetery is going to 

 take that in some day, Mr. Johnson. 



The Chairman. Are those lands occupied by the experiment 

 station owned by the Government or simply leased? 



Mr. Swingle. Yes: it is owned by the Government. We are only 

 temporarily occupying Government land, from which we may be 

 evicted next year: we do not know. 



Mr. Johnson. It is your opinion that when Arlington is enlarged, 

 ami your present grounds, your present operations, are pushed back, 

 you will not be pushed back farther into Virginia, 'but they will 

 lump you over to Mount Hamilton; is that your theory about it? 



Mr. Swingle. I would not say that: I am simply speaking of the 

 advantage of Mount Hamilton and of planting these trees in grounds 

 where we can see them without traveling 12,000 miles to go where 

 they grow wild. 



Mr. Johnson. If the Chinese pear trees were taken to the ground 

 you have already, would you have to travel 12,000 miles to see them? 



Mr. Swingle! Xo : provided that they could be planted perma- 

 nently ; we have no such place now. 



Mr. Johnson. Do you mean to say that there is only one place, 

 and that is Mount Hamilton? 



