20 



of contingent fund, and other funds from the same source held by the 

 treasurer and lianded over by him to the secretary. These two fnndls 

 were completely used up in tlie payment of current expenses, as will 

 appear in the detailed statement of the secretary. 



These fundis, however, were still insufficient to pay the current 

 expenses, which were, chiefly, the expenses of the stenographer's re- 

 port and transcripts of the thirteenth annual convention, at Rochester, 

 and the cost of printing the annual report. The cost of printing the 

 report was paid out of the available funds. The stenographer's' bill, 

 amounting to $169.00 originally, but reduce'd to $135.00 by the sten- 

 ographer on representation by the officers of the association that the 

 amount was excessive, wias paid by Mr. Bixby personally, and the 

 association is indebted to Mr. Bixby in that amount at this moment. 



The second function that developed upon the secretary was the 

 management of the membership lists and matters relating thereto, 

 which, though perhaps essentially a duty of the secretary of an associa- 

 tion such as this, had been managed by the treasurer since the time 

 w'hen he took over the duties of the secretary in 1918. This had in- 

 volved quite an expenditure for clerical work. This clerical work 

 would still be an expense to the association, had not one of our mem- 

 bers, Mr. H. J. Hilliard. of Sound View, Connecticut, volunteered to 

 do it. Mr. Hilliard was formerly connected wfith a bank, is entirely 

 familiar with the keeping of accounts, is a man of means and leisure, 

 and I shall take pleasure in offering his name to fill the vacant treas- 

 urership. Heretofore, this association has had to pay little or nothing 

 for clerical work which has been done either by the secretary, or by 

 the treasurer and his personal clerical force. 



In accordance with the vote of the Rochester convention the sec- 

 retary drafted two letters, one entitled, "To the State Vice-Presidents 

 of the N. N. G. A. and All Members of the Association"; the other, 

 "To All Women Members of the N. N. G. A. and to All Women In- 

 terested, or Interestable, in Nut Culture." Both of these letters 

 were sent to all memlbers of the association, and the letter to women 

 was sent also to a considerable list of women not members. The re- 

 sults of these letters were, so far as the secretary has means of know- 

 ing, not over a half dozen letters of appreciation from members, one 

 new woman member, and a letter of appreciation from another woman. 



The secretary has reason to believe, however, that the letters were 

 the means of stimfulating several of the state vice-presidents to activity 



