2 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



but fair to say that he has not given his own work the prominence it deserves 

 in the steps of advancement made, or in the measures instituted to bring out 

 the capabilities of the State and keep them before the public. To him, more 

 than any other man, is due the standing which the Michigan Horticultural 

 Society has secured among other organizations of its kind, and the conse- 

 quent influence upon the material interests of agriculture by widening the 

 area of production and intensifying the methods that have called business 

 enterprise of the highest character to be employed in this realm of production. 



From my own experience in securing items of history for the contributions 

 I have made to our horticultural literature, and the difficulties I have often 

 encountered in hunting out a single fact, I know this compilation will be of 

 inestimable value to students of horticulture, as its facts are unquestioned, 

 and they thread into every section of the State and touch every branch of the 

 industry. 



The free and proper employment of the material in these pages to further 

 the advancement of an occupation that already takes rank as a leading one 

 in our State, will be the most satisfactory compensation to the Society and 

 the highest tribute to the compiler. 



Grand Rapids, June, 1887. 



