TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING, 



HELD IN KALAMAZOO, DECEMBER 2, 3, AND 4, 1890. 



For the twentieth time the Michigan State Horticultural society has met 

 for transaction of its annual business and preparation for the work of a 

 new year. This time the assembly was in Kalamazoo and the time Dec. 2 

 to 4, and in all respects save that of local attendance the meeting was a 

 complete success. The programme had wide range and most of the papers 

 read were of great practical value. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL MESSAGE. 



President Lyon called the first session to order Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 

 2, and read his annual message, which is here appended: 



Fellow Members of the Michigan State Horticultural Society : 



As in the course of events nature has ordered that our earth and its 

 attendant worlds shall be annually brought back to its original position, 

 to re-traverse the cycle of the months, so, in the case of our society, the 

 the course of events has again brought us to a stage appropriately 

 dedicated to a retrospect of the operations of the year now past, and the 

 consideration of the important problem, how we may gather wisdom from 

 its lessons, and thereby secure increased effectiveness in the work of the 

 coming year. 



In accordance with the trite and homely adage that " charity begins at 

 home," I am compelled to again refer to the circumstance that a very large 

 proportion of our state, and especially its newer portions, is, to us, unoccu- 

 pied territory; while its inhabitants, taken as a whole, seem but slightly 

 conscious of the horticultural possibilities of their regions. 



That an appropriation by the legislature, to enable the society to do a 

 a work in this field, otherwise impossible, would prove a profitable invest- 

 ment, even pecuniarily considered, can scarcely be doubted, in the light 

 of results of similar legislation in other states iDossessing far less horti- 

 cultural capacity than ours. 



In lack of this, the society has heretofore proposed to distribute a 

 portion of its annual volumes in such localities. Owing to various diffi- 

 culties, little has heretofore been done in this direction; but it is understood 

 that our secretary has recently inaugurated a movement of -this kind, as 

 he may be expected to explain in his annual report. 



We suggest that, in the absence of local horticultural organizations, 

 granges and other similar organizations, consenting to devote a portion of 



