28 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



There is one feature of a botanical garden in Washington to which 

 I should like to call your special attention. If it is of adequate size 

 and is located where the Washington botanists can work with it, 

 it not only will cost you nothing in the long run, but for every dollar 

 you put into it you will take many dollars out. I do not mean that 

 this garden will declare dividends, but through the information it 

 will disseminate and the new industries it will create it will vastly 

 increase the tax returns to the Government. 



Mr. Moore. Will you please tell the committee what you think of 

 the availability of Mount Hamilton as a site for the purposes of a 

 botanical garden. 



Mr. Coville. The Mount Hamilton site has a large variety of soils, 1 

 from gravels on the higher slopes, in which wild blueberries are 

 growing, with trailing arbutus, azaleas, and laurel, to the wild rice 

 marshes which constitute the eastern part of the site, and the fertile 

 alluvial soils along the river. In its variety of soils and exposure 

 it is admirably adapted to botanical garden purposes ; it could hardly 

 be improved. I should like to say also that parts of this area have 

 been very severely injured in past years by ground fires. I was on 

 the site recently and found areas in which the underbrush had been 

 killed by fire within two weeks. In the large forest area some of the 

 trees have been killed and some have been injured. These fires 

 could be stopped at once by an adequate patrol. If fires are kept 

 out of this tract, the larger part of which is forested, it will become a 

 natural botanical garden without the use of any instrument except 

 an ax, to trim out occasional dead and undesirable trees. Even now 

 it is used extensively by the people of that part of the city as a place 

 for Sunday and holiday strolls. The strip which constitutes one 

 part of the site, along the Anacostia River, known as Hickey Hill, 

 is a great bird resort, one of the most remarkable of the District. 

 It is full of all sorts of nesting birds, which feed in the marshes. 



I have here some pictures that were taken in that locality recently 

 through the courtesy of Mr. Fairchild. They will give you some idea 

 of the attractiveness of portions of this area. 



The Chairman. Speaking of the experiments you are conducting 

 I would like to know if the Department of Agriculture has any lands 

 out in the country near the city of Washington where such experi- 

 ments could be conducted ? 



Mr. Coville. Xo. I breed these hybrid blueberries in the green- 

 house and keep them there until they are a year old. Then I ship 

 them to a place down in the fine barrens of New Jersey, about 40 

 miles east of Philadelphia, where the soil is acid and sandy. When 

 they come to maturity we select those bearing fruit of the largest 

 size, best color, most productive, of the best flavor. That is the way 

 my work has been done. 



The Chairman. What I am seeking, information about is whether 

 proper lands — cheaper lands than those in the Mount Hamilton 

 tract — could not lie secured farther out for the purposes of the 

 Department of Agriculture '. 



Mr. Coville. For the extensive field work yes. but for the breeding 

 work no. It would be undesirable for this reason : This work is a 

 side line, one might say. done in our spare time as we can take it 

 from our office duties. We have administrative work to perform, 



1 See map 41. end of vol. 2. 



