STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 47 



Mr. Gaston — 1 thiDk it would be well to increase the number of 

 the Ad-interim committee. I think the State work is suffering 

 for want of more extensive and thorough organization. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



BY HENRY M. DUNLAP, SAVOY. 



Once again we meet around the Horticultural Board to com- 

 pare notes and talk over the events of the past year. It is well, 

 perhaps, that our annual history should be made a matter of 

 record, and, viewed in this light, it may have been wisely pro- 

 vided by the incorporators of our Society that the President 

 should deliver* an annual address; it might properly be styled 

 the President's Message. 



This Society, at its last annual meeting, requested the Execu- 

 tive Board to make some provision for the establishment of 

 stations for experiments in horticulture. To do this in a man- 

 ner to insure success and lasting benefits therefrom, the Execu- 

 tive Board decided that the means at hand were inadequate for 

 the work. In view of this fact, and the necessity for extending 

 the work in other directions, and the printing of more copies of 

 the annual reports, the Board decided to ask the Legislature for 

 an annual appropriation of $4,000 in place of $2,000, as hereto- 

 fore received. Some of the officers went before the committees 

 of both houses, and explained the object of the increased 

 amount asked for, and the Legislature dually decided to grant 

 the request, provided that the Society should expend not less 

 than $1,000 annually in held experiments for the advancement 

 of horticulture. For this increase in our funds, we are indebted 

 to the many friends of horticulture in the Legislature, and to the 

 individual efforts of members of this Society, with their repre- 

 sentatives, but especially do we wish to thank those members of 

 the Legislature who made it their personal business to see that 

 we were successful, and among those it is but justice to acknowl- 

 edge our obligations to Hon. O. F. Berry, of Carthage, who had 

 charge of the bill in the Senate, and Col. Chas. Bogardus, of 

 Ford County, also of the Senate, and the Hon. Win. Oglevee, 

 of Clinton, and Hon. D. R. Sparks, of Alton, who looked after 

 our interests in the House. We owe much to these gentlemen 

 for their efforts in our behalf. 



To secure this appropriation was one thing, and to wisely 

 expend it is another. The Executive Board immediately took 

 the matter in hand, and decided to establish three experiment 

 stations in each horticultural district of the State, making nine 

 stations in all. Rules were adopted and experiments decided 

 upon. As a report will be made upon this subject, I refer to it 

 here so that you may be prepared to discuss this question, hav- 



