THE NINETEENTH ANNHJAL MEETING. 71 



annual meeting one year ago. Not that they are all we could wish, in some 

 respects, but they are very much better than it was with good reason 

 feared they would become. 



THE ANNUAL FAIE. 



" Immediately after the organization of the Detroit International Fair 

 association, correspondence was begun with their officials with a view to 

 secu^'ing with them a relation similar to that which was long sustained to 

 the Michigan state fair. Our proposals were readily accepted and details 

 were arranged upon a visit to Detroit by Prest. Lyon, Mr. Garfield, and 

 myself. In brief, the agreement was the offering of $2,300 in premiums and 

 allowance of §1,550 for expenses. The result was in all respects satisfac- 

 tory, and even gratifying, to both this society and the Exposition manage- 

 ment. The large premiums offered drew exhibits from other states, and 

 the efforts of President Lyon secured a considerable number of sub-trop- 

 ical fruits which excited a remarkable degree of interest. In some features 

 the exhibit surpassed any other in the society's history, and on the whole, 

 it is but fair to say, was a great credit to the state. I would be undutif ul 

 should I omit special mention of the grand part taken by Oceana county in 

 this fair, both by your horticultural society and Messrs. Gebhart and 

 Sessions. The plum exhibit was almost marvelous, exciting the wonder 

 of all visitors, many of whom were loth to believe the beautiful fruits were 

 produced in Michigan — while but for Oceana county our show of peaches 

 would have been meagre indeed. Nor should mention be omitted of the 

 substantial aid rendered us by the State Agricultural college, in its great 

 show of fruits, vegetables, and samples of products of other departments, 

 exhibit of its methods and apparatus of instruction, etc. From the very 

 beginning this college has been to our society a willing and powerful friend 

 and deserves in return our heartiest and constant support, not on this score 

 alone but because of its intrinsic and increasing merit as a school of agri- 

 culture and horticulture. 



The total of premiums awarded was §1,366.25, and §126.73 of the expense 

 fund was unexpended and left in the hands of the Exposition association. 

 The advantage gained was not in form of a large balance in our treasury, 

 such as sometimes resulted from former fairs, but from the expense fund 

 was paid nearly all the salary of the secretary for the year, which other- 

 wise could scarcely have been provided (and the society crippled in its 

 work as a consequence), and a prestige gained which can not fail of still 

 better results in the future. We have been invited by the Exposition 

 managers to submit proposals for conducting their horticultural show the 

 coming yeaa*, and immediate steps should be taken to close an agreement, 

 for work should begin at once. Already we have assurance of very fine 

 exhibits from without the state, and from within it as well if we are spared 

 from the incursions of the Frost King. The early date of the Exposition 

 for 1890 (Aug. 26 to Sept. 5), is in some respects to our disadvantage, but 

 in others quite the contrary. 



• 



THE ANNUAL REPORT 



was issued very late — a month later than any of its predecessors, I believe 

 — a result, I may as well confess, due undoiibtedly to the fact that we had 

 "a new hand at the bellows." I am admonished by that phrase to counter, 



