secretaky's budget. 383 



UDder-estimated by those who do it. As far as it is the experience of 

 workers, a single page is worth volumes of guess work. If an editor 

 whose eye each week passes over the whole volume of current horti- 

 •cultural literature, takes the trouble to make extracts from the often 

 poorly printed and badly bound reports of an unknown society, that 

 society can take it for grar.ted that they are adding something to the 

 world's slock. 



The exhibition of flowers, fruits and vegetables should be encour- 

 aged to the greatest extent, for in no other way can erroneous ideas be 

 so easily corrected. 



The organization and carrying on of a local horticultural society 

 is no child's plaj'. Somebody must do a large amount of earnest, self- 

 sacrificing hard work gratuitously, before such an organization gains 

 •sufficient popularity and sbm ing to go it alone. None but those who 

 have tried it know the obstacles to be overcome. Even at this period 

 of horticultural advancement the aims and objects of such organiza- 

 tions are often misunderstood, and it takes a large amount of patience 

 and good na'ure to put some communities straight on the subject. 



Toward bringing about the horiicultural millennium, I know of no 

 more powerful engine than the State Horticultural Society, if used 

 aright. It should have the best minds in the State among its mem- 

 bers ; it should have a liberal appropriation of money. What more 

 could be wanted ? The methods I suggest for its work are the same 

 now employed by many church denominations and by the American 

 Sunday School Union. I would pay the secretary of a State horticul- 

 tural society a salary large enough lor him to devote his whole time to 

 the work. Like an agent for church extension I would have him visit 

 and encourage weak societies and establish new, and in every possible 

 way work up a practical sentiment in favor of empl ^ying and enjoying 

 to the fullest extent all the beauiiful atid good that nature permits to 

 grow out of the ground. A State horticultural society, like a State 

 .board of agriculture, should be aggressive in its work, pushing it, and 

 should not sit supinely down waiting for something to turn up. Its re- 

 ports should be up to the times, and if published promptly would se- 

 cure ten readers where but one is secured if a number of months inter- 

 vene between meeting and publication. The work that a live State 

 horticultural society, with one or more efficient local societies in each 

 county, can do in the line that I have briefly indicated, is great, and 

 sooner or later it will have to be done. L. B. Pierce. 



