212 American Horticnliural Society. 



Promotion of Agricultural Science meet at the same i)lace eacli year, on iHfferent 

 days. The C'onntry Uentlenian is always ready to extend a helping hand to every 

 agency for the promotion of so excellent a cause as the extension of horticultural 

 improvement in all its departments, liiit in doing so could not aid in any ill- 

 advised moveinent." 



It will he ot)serve<l that the Country Gentleman ends by proposing identically 

 the plan of cooperation upon which we are working. So we are, fortunately, of 

 the same mind, and the criticism falls harmlessly to oblivion as simply the result 

 of a misnntlerstanding. So we feel more encotiriiged than ever to harmonize ami 

 cooperate our national horticultural societies. 



Before discussing definitely a scheme of co<">peration, we should be assured 

 that there is really a need and demand for such a movement. To ascertain this, 

 I give here the judgment of a number of our best members and thinkers. Under 

 the present contlition of our organizations jealousies are said to exist, and the most 

 potent remedy for this canker-worm is thought to be co<"»peration. That cooper- 

 ation must be of such a character as not to kill or sink the identity of any of our 

 societies; on the contrary, it should conserve and strengthen each and all. Heed 

 the following counsel. 



In a letter to Secretary Kagan, August 10, 1887, the Hon. T. T. Lyon, now 

 Vice-President of the American Pomological Society, wrote : 



"The fact can not have escaped you that (while beneath the surface) the 

 jealousies which I years ago feared have come to have existence (though probaldy 

 altogether unwarrantable). I, in seconding the motion to make the Mississippi 

 Valley Society national, was moved by the wish to have a national horticultural 

 society in the full, general sense of that title. * » » * 



"The coming meeting at Boston seems certain to prove a critical period in 

 the history of the American Pomological Society; one at which its future plans 

 must be considered and settled, and therefore the best possible time to bring up 

 the unification plan, with which you have been more or less connected. I can see 

 no sufficient reason why something of this character, not compromising the legal, 

 corporate existence of the society, may not be devised and be made advantageous 

 to all concerned. I am not sure but that the American Horticultural and Ameri- 

 can Pomological Societies might not hit upon some plan upon which they could 

 coalesce so as to insure the elimination of the present (and perhaps prospective) 

 jealou.sy between them. I earnestly hope that by some means the pomologists of 

 the whole country may be saved from the danger of divided counsels and antag- 

 onistic operations. Very truly yours, T. T. LvoN."' 



The Hon. C. L. Watrous, President of the American Nurserymen's Association, 

 wrote me as follows, November 23, 1887 : 



"My Dear Sir: Relative to the proposed co-operation, I am very free to 

 say that, in my judgment, the Horticultural Society, the Pomological Society and 

 the American Forestry Congress should be mergej and worked together. The 

 same class of men, and mainly also the same individuals, interested in one are 

 interested in the work of all, and would be glad to meet all congeni.il minds at 

 the meetings. This object can never be accomplished except by a unification. I 

 think the work of unification one of the most important of all those lying ahead 

 of us. Yours, very sincerely, C. L. Watrous." 



