222 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Accepted and adopted. 



The Presideat then announced the following committees: 



Business Committee — Hyde, Sharp, Wells. 



Transportation Committee — Cobb, Turner, Ball. 



Committee on Printing — Dean, Sterling, Sharp. 



Committee on Reception — M. Shoemaker, Humphrey, Parsons. 



Committee on Programme — Phillips, Butterfield, Hyde. 



General Superintendent — H. 0. Hanford. 



Gates— Wm. Ball. 



Police— W. H. Cobb. 



Chief Marshal — A. 0. Hyde. 



The Committee on Conference with the Horticultural Society presented 

 the following report : 



To the President and Members of the Executive Committee of the State Agricidtural 

 Society: 



Gentlemen — The Special Committee appointed to communicate with the Committee 



from State Horticultural Society, beg leave to recommend as follows: To offer to the 



Society to make a premium list of ^800, and pay the Society in cash |600. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



FRANKLIN WELLS, 



A. F. WOOD, 



ABEL ANGEL. 



Accepted and adopted. 



The report on Horticulture was presented by Secretary Garfield. 



Grand Rapids, Jan. 8, 1887. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Executive Committee: 



A complete report of the exhibit in Pomological Hall will appear in my forthcoming 

 report, of which you will each have copies. But the closing paragraphs of that report 

 I think you may be interested in sufficiently to have them reproduced here at your 

 winter meeting. 



With the experience of the exhibition freshly before me, I cannot refrain from 

 making a few suggestive notes: 



1. It is a great mistake for any exhibitor of fruits to attend the Fair without having 

 his varieties so packed and labeled as to enable him to place his collections upon plates 

 rapidly and without error. It is not safe or discreet at such times to trust one's ability 

 to sort out varieties and name them, no matter how good a pomologist he may be. 



Striking examples of the neglect to carry out this simple rule, and its consequent 

 results, were numerous at the last Fair. Men who came from a long distance, getting 

 to the exhibition late, because of their perfect methods of packing and labels had large 

 collections in shape for committees at the appointed hour ; while others with small 

 exhibits, who brought their specimens direct from the orchard to the grounds in bas- 

 kets, were unprepared for the committee, and their collections w^ere dotted with mis- 

 takes in nomenclatui'e. 



2. The plan of limiting collections to a number which should cover the best varieties 

 for the purpose indicated in the offering, is a valuable provision for the exhibitors, the 

 Society and the visitors. It gives opportunity for exhibitors to use their judgment with 

 regard to the value of varieties, knowing as they do that mere numbers count nothing 

 beyond the limit set. It enables the Society to plan for an exhibit of which they know 



