PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 101 



seceetary's eeport. 



Oenilemen of ihe Michigan State Horticultural Society : 



I have the pleasure to report the affairs of the society as being in the 

 main in satisfactory condition. The interest felt in the work of the society 

 by its members, those of the auxiliary societies, and the public in gen- 

 eral, seems to be decidedly greater than it was a few years ago, when cer- 

 tain inharmonious elements were actively engaged against us, bending 

 strenuous efforts towards disruption and decay. This is an era of good- 

 will and peace, and, save in one respect, the society was never better pre- 

 pared for its work, while never was there more work to be done. 



The exception which I note refers to the society's finances. While we 

 have enough to keep going after a fashion, and certainly have made the 

 most of the little means at command, there is no question of the need of 

 more money. But how to obtain it is a puzzle to those who have given 

 the matter attention. At our last annual meeting a committee was 

 appointed to try to secure from the legislature an appropriation for the 

 annual expenses of the society, so far at least as the compilation of the 

 reports is concerned, but no action whatever was taken so far as I am 

 informed. There is reason to believe that an early application to the leg- 

 islature for a moderate annual sum would have been successful, but when 

 I began the work alone I found it loo late. 



There had been so many allowances of cash from the treasury, and there 

 yet remained so many which must be made, that the task was clearly a hope- 

 less one. Another plan discussed between President Lyon, Mr. Garfield^ 

 and myself, was not undertaken because of the financial collapse which was 

 at its climax at the time for which we arranged the institution of effort. 

 In the future we may be able to do something in the way designed, which 

 was a sort of endowment plan, but at present there is little hope for suc- 

 cess in this way. 



However, we have gotten through the year with a little balance on hand, 

 and have assurance that, so long as we are able to keep the expenditures 

 down to what they have been in recent years, we shall be able to go on 

 with a measure of success which does us credit, even though we feel it to 

 be so much less than is possible. 



During the year we have held more meetings than we have been able to 

 hold in recent years. There were three — the annual meeting at Ann 

 Arbor, the winter meeting in Benton Harbor, and the summer meeting at 

 Shelby. All of these were well attended and successful in great degree. 

 The papers read at these meetings were in the main of high quality, the 

 several societies with which they were held expressing themselves as highly 

 satisfied and requited for their efforts and expense. 



There has been little increase of local societies during the year. On the 

 other hand, I am sorry to say, three have become inoperative, if not quite 

 extinct. The one new one is that of Gratiot county, with headquarters at 

 Ithaca. There have been no meetings of the Sanilac or Port Huron 

 societies, nor of the Michigan manufacturers of fruit goods. The failure 

 of the latter is due*to the repeated failure of the apple crop, which left its 

 members little business to do and no incentive for meetings. But this 

 state of things is likely to take a favorable turn if this year of '94 shall see 

 the orchards once more productive. 



There have been several new organizations of the type of the Lawton 

 fruit shippers' association, which are of a purely commercial character, yet 



