7 
Average daily receipts from admissions $65 15 
The largest amount of receipts at the gates on an 3^ 
one day was on Saturday, July 4th 577 00 
Total Receipts on the several days of theiveek, and their respective 
averages for 1896-97. 
Rank. 
Days. 
Total Receipts. 
Average. 
1 
Sunday 
$8,752 15 
$165 13 
2 
Saturday 
7,000 00 
134 61 
3 
1,789 51 
34 41 
4 
Friday 
1,686 96 
32 44 
5 
Monday 
1,567 36 
30 14 
6 
1,498 01 
28 81 
7 
1,486 23 
28 58 
$23,780 22 
The receipts from admissions and incidental sources haye 
reached a lower point than in any previous year since the 
opening of the Gardens. This large decrease in income is 
alarming, even though its simplest explanation would seem 
to lie in the unproductiveness of all forms of industry dur- 
ing the same period. 
The condition is sufficiently serious to justify a further 
examination here. 
That the Board has made every effort to meet the reduced 
income is best shown by the fact that the present cost of 
operating the Gardens is no greater than it was twenty 
years ago, since which time three large buildings have been 
erected, a fourth has been much enlarged, many out-door 
enclosures have been added, and the cultivated area of the 
grounds has been increased by one-third. Indeed, it is not 
easy to say where the practice of economy could be further 
applied. 
The other side of the finances, however — the devising of 
means by which the receipts from admissions may be stim- 
ulated — is difficult in the extreme. The very permanence 
of the exhibition destroys much of the ordinary advantage 
