188 GENERAL HISTORY. 



.act are hereby required to report through their secretaiy, in the month of November 

 in each year, to the secretary of the State association, the proceedings of said society 

 during the year, giving a statement of the facts elicited and of the experience gained 

 during the preceding year ; such reports from district, county, town, city or village 

 societies to be used as correspondence in compiling the report of the State association 

 provided for in section six. 



Sec. 8. Associations incorporated under this act shall, on compliance with the re- 

 quirements thereof, be entitled to all the immunities, emoluments, and privileges ac- 

 corded by law to the agricultural societies of this State. 



Although 110 direct appropriation has ever been made to the State Horti- 

 cul oral Society, yet the society has been indirectly aidod through the publi- 

 cation of its reports, the distribution of the same being largely in the bands 

 of the society, with the understanding that those who do something in aid of 

 horticulture in Michigan shall be first served. The following is the text of 

 the section under which the reports are printed aud distributed : 



The secretary of the State Horticultural Society shjill make a report annually, similar 

 in chax-acter to that of the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, but covering 

 the subject of horticulture ; eight thousand four hundred copies of said report to be 

 printed and bound in like manner as the report of the secretary of the State Board of 

 Agriculture. Six thousand copies shall be placed at the disposal of the State Horticult- 

 ural Society, wliich shall be distributed in like manner as the report of the secretary of 

 the State Board of Agriculture, giving preference to horticultural and pomological 

 societies and fruit growers, wherever such may exist within the State, and the remain- 

 ing copies shall be disposed of in the same manner as the joint documents. 



In 1875, 1881, and 1885 appropriations were made, 81,000 each time, for 

 the purpose of exhibiting Michigan horticultural products at the sessions of 

 the American Pomological Society, and each time quite a large proportion of 

 the appropriation vras covered back into the treasury, although the exhibits 

 were in each case more than satisfactory. 



In 1881 the legislature adopted the following concurrent resolution : 

 Resolved (the Senate concurring). That his excellency, the Governor, be and is hereby 

 requested to call the attention of the people of the State to the importance of planting 

 trees for ornament, protection and shade, by naming a day upon which this work shall 

 be given special prominence, to be known and designated as '• Arbor Day." 



Under this resolution eanh year, the Governor has by proclamation desig- 

 nated a day to be celebrated as a tree-planting day, and thousands of trees 

 have been planted under the stimulus of this legislative action. 



The present highway law of tne State contains the following sections con- 

 cerning the planting of shade and ornamental trees along the highway: 



SHADE TREES IN HIGHWAYS. 



Section 1. Shade trees shall be planted along botli sides of the public highways, at 

 the uniform distance, as near as may be, of sixty feet apart, and not less than twenty- 

 three nor more than twenty-five feet fi'om the center line of the highway, but the town- 

 ship board of any township may direct as to the distance which trees may be set from 

 •each other or from the outer line of the highway. All trees now growing upon the 

 sides of any highway, and all trees that may be hereafter planted thereon, standing 



