CRUSADING FOR THE GARDEN 
M OST of us are little inclined to investigate the 
source of our blessings so long as they flow undis¬ 
turbed, and it is only when manna ceases to fall 
that we begin to question. In this gardeners are 
no exception, being quite as prone to accept and to 
expect new and ever finer things for their gardens with scant 
realization of the human effort—concentrated, patient, and 
persistent—that goes into even the smallest upward step in the 
kingdom of horticulture. 
It is really a pity that there is not a more general knowledge 
and understanding of the work of the Arboretums and Botanic 
Gardens of this country which are quietly and steadily serving 
not the gardener alone but the whole American people. They 
are definite factors in civic life, oftentimes doing definitely 
constructive civic work—the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for 
example, has during this past year reached something more than 
74,000 children and 4,000 teachers through classes, lectures, 
etc.; and more than 200 boys and girls each season learn the 
essentials of gardening in a happy, healthy, practical manner 
through supervised work in the childrens’ gardens. 
1 he significance and value of the scientific experimentation 
being carried on under the wing of Harvard University can 
scarcely be estimated, but thanks to this group of disinterested, 
far-seeing men so ably headed by Professor Sargent, the Arnold 
Arboretum is building not only for to-day but for centuries 
ahead. Trees and shrubs from the world over are being tested 
out for use in American gardens, and the records of their habits 
and reactions under varying soil and climatic conditions form 
the indispensable basis on which must rest all intelligent prog¬ 
ress in this field. 
Has your fancy perhaps been caught by one of the newer 
Chinese Lilacs whose high-bred loveliness makes the old- 
fashioned doorstep sort seem the clumsiest of Cinderellas? If 
so, you become unwitting debtor to the Arboretum which is 
showering our thoughtlessness with the unrewarded bounty of 
Magnolias, flowering Crabs, Forsythias, Azaleas, and many 
another bright-bloomed shrub that makes the springtime gay; 
for statelier trees, too, both evergreen and deciduous, gratitude 
is due. 
If this splendid enrichment of the American garden and 
landscape is to continue unhampered, the Arnold Arboretum 
must win for its work recognition more substantial than mere 
words. As outlined in the April issue of G. M. (page 135) an 
effort is now beingmade to interest not only gardeners but public- 
spirited people generally in establishing a sufficient fund to 
carry on this constructive work. How the crusade fares is told by 
its chairman in the following letter sent us on July sixteenth: 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
OU and your readers have taken so generous an interest in the Arnold 
Arboretum of Harvard University that perhaps you may be glad to have a 
brief report of the results of an effort made during the last few months by the 
Committee appointed by the Harvard Overseers to visit the Arboretum. 
For a number of years the Arboretum's income from invested funds has been 
inadequate to support it, and the burden of securing money to meet large annual 
deficits has rested chiefly on the Director, Professor Charles S. Sargent. The 
contributors have been a small group of his personal friends, for the most part 
residents of Greater Boston. The Visiting Committee felt that the future 
success of the annual campaigns for funds required that a great many more 
contributors should be secured, even though the average contribution were 
smaller, and that Professor Sargent should be relieved of this work as far as 
possible. 
We therefore sent out on April first 22,000 appeals to a carefully selected list 
of persons likely to be interested in the work of the Arboretum. We asked for 
contributions of ten dollars or any larger sum toward meeting the deficit of the 
year ending on June 30th last. Before that day we had received 778 replies, 
enclosing contributions amounting to $15,821.30, in sums varying from seven 
of $2. to one of $1000. Five hundred and thirty persons sent $10. each, 
and subscriptions were received from every state in the Union except Florida, 
Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah, as well as a 
few from England, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Hawaii. 
The campaign has been a success. The money has been received at a critical 
time of necessarily enlarged expenditures. But we cannot stop here. The 
Arboretum needs a much larger income if it is to undertake the new activities in 
different parts of the world which are necessary if it is to maintain its position 
as the most important establishment of its kind in the world. And in providing 
such an income the Committee must count on the new friends whom it hopes it 
has gained for the Arboretum, and the publicity which they can give it among 
their friends.— Roger Wolcott, Chairman of the Committee appointed by the 
Overseers of Harvard College. 
THE GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S 
TENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
O NE of gardening’s many pleasant by-products, as it were, 
is the way it links people of perhaps ordinarily diverse in¬ 
terests and occupations. Itself a fundamental occupation, it 
works strongly toward democratization, conferring on its 
devotees a spiritual refinement born of daily contact with the 
great realities—life and beauty—that level the artificial bar¬ 
riers built in shallowness of soul, letting in the warm realization 
of brotherhood “under the skin.” 
Hence it is that when garden lovers in one part of the world 
get together for fruitful discussion, garden lovers everywhere 
are glad to know about it. The Garden Club of America which 
splendidly aims “to stimulate the knowledge and love of gar¬ 
dening among amateurs; to share the advantages of association, 
through conference and correspondence in this country and 
abroad; to aid in the protection of native plants and birds; and 
to encourage civic planting” has recently met (June 26-28) for 
its annual discussion of the broader phases of gardening which 
touch all the associated sister clubs. The meeting-place was 
Newport (R. I.) with its notable gardens, a number of which 
were hospitably thrown open. A detailed report of the two 
days’ pleasant activities under the aegis of the Garden Associa¬ 
tion of Newport, hostess club on this occasion, will be found in 
the July “Bulletin of The Garden Club of America.” 
What chiefly concerns us now are the constructive suggestions 
bearing upon the problems and interests of gardeners as a 
whole—chief among them being, perhaps, Mrs. lselin’s report on 
her work as Chairman of the Roadside Committee. The 
necessity for protecting public lands and highways from mutila¬ 
tion and disfigurement, for preserving characteristic country¬ 
side flora (G. M. for July 1923, pages 322-323) and for awaken¬ 
ing community interest in attractive roadside plantings (see 
Chas. LeSure’s article, page 245, April 1923, G. M.) is a com- 
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