Letters Received from Absent Friends. 27 



side. This courtesy will be extended only to those who are mem- 

 bers of the Society. I hope this hint will be sufficient to greatly 

 increase the membership in the Society, which is always easily ac- 

 complished, and consists in paying $2 to our Secretary. There are 

 various other, and even greater, advantages to be gained by joining 

 our Society, which will be made apparent hereafter. 



J. B. Lauok, of California, Traveling Passenger Agent of the 

 Southern Pacific Railway — Mr. President, if you will allow me, I 

 should like to request all members from outside the state of Cali- 

 fornia to meet me during the noon recess, as our company has in- 

 structed me to tender all such members of your Society (whom I 

 Avish now to enroll) a free excursion through the Napa and Sacra- 

 mento valleys, after the close of these meetings. 



President Earle — This is a very generous offer, and I trust that 

 our people will not be slow to accept it. In behalf of the Society, 

 I thank you, Majoi* Lauck, and your liberal-spirited railway com- 

 pany, for your magnanimous proposition to show us through these 

 fine valleys. 



On motion of Mr. T. S. Hubbard, of New York, a Committee on 

 Order of Business was appointed by the President, consisting of Mr. 

 Hubbard of New York, Mr. Wilcox of California, Mr. Smith of 

 Wisconsin, Mj-. Avery of Iowa, Major Evans of Missouri, and Sec- 

 retary Ragan of Indiana. 



The President — While the Committee on Order of Business is out 

 for consultation, I wish to present a few of tlie niany 



LETTERS RECEIVED FROM OUR ABSENT FRIENDS. 



I will not attempt to read all these letters, but leave the greater 

 number of them for our Secretary to publish without reading. The 

 first, and, perhaps, the most important, letter which I shall read 

 you — important especially because of the eminent position in horti- 

 cultural affairs held by its author, and because of its far distant 

 origin — is that from the hand of the editor of the London (Eng.) 

 Horticultural Times and Covent Garden Gazette, in which he ex- 

 presses his regret (which we feel even more keenly than he possibly 

 •can) and his great disappointment at not being permitted to attend 

 these meetings. This, it would seem, is due — as I suspect it may be 



