WINTER MEETING. 427 



Horticultural societies are intended to interest people in horticultural pur- 

 suits. Their success in this direction depends largely on the influence exerted 

 by the officers and leading members. They should have almost unbounded 

 faith in horticulture as a means of ennobling the character and bettering the 

 condition of every one who engages in it. They should practice what they 

 preach. Nothing exerts a more chilling and paralyzing influence than to 

 have as a leading member one whose knowledge is all theoretical and who has 

 a reputation in his own town and county for shiftlessness and inefficiency. 



Each member should talk up the society, and never talk it down. He 

 should bring the best he has for exhibition, and be able and willing to tell 

 how it was grown. There should be a question box, and each one should use 

 it. The subject for discussion should be known in advance so that all may 

 post up. 



Worthy persons should be invited to the meetings, and pains should be 

 taken to give them a hearty welcome and make their attendance a pleasure. 

 The hour or two spent in conversation before dinner is announced may be 

 made exceedingly pleasant and profitable to all. The dinner is an important 

 part of the programme; I can compare it to nothing but a family reunion or 

 a meeting of our Pomona Grange. 



These meetings are bright spots in. our lives ; they increase our number of 

 friends and give us kindlier feelings toward each other; they stimulate us to 

 beautify our homes and to raise more and better flowers and fruits; they 

 increase our knowledge of varieties and methods and give us a higher 

 standard. 



A horticultural society can flourish only where there is sufficient intelligence 

 to appreciate a good thing. 



M. CRAWFORD. 



L. B. Pierce said the Portage County Horticultural Society owed its suc- 

 cess primarily to its location in a community of culture, intelligence and 

 refinement, and a judicious selection of officers. By the persistent work of 

 the secretary, its list of members had been kept up to a good number, and 

 this had insured a full treasury, which was a blessing to any society. It had 

 been enabled to purchase about $30 worth of reference books. It owned a 

 tent costing about $100, which enabled members with small houses to have 

 the summer meetings, and the society had not been compelled to meet in 

 public halls or on picnic grounds. Th is meeting at the houses of members from 

 month to month, was not referred to by Mr. Crawford, but it was one of the 

 best means of leavening a county with horticultural leaven, and it familiar- 

 ized the members with the methods and practices of those who had sufficient 

 faith in their own ways to welcome the members at their own homes. Although 

 the speaker lived 10 miles from the county seat and two miles outside the 

 county, he had found it possible to average an attendance, generally with his 

 wife, of ten meetings per year for the eight years of the society's existence, 

 sometimes driving 25 miles and return. Other members were equally enthu- 

 siastic, and at the last July meeting, held at his place, although in the midst 

 of drawing wheat, 175 persons were in attendance. He could not recall an 

 instance where an essayist had failed to respond to an appointment, and the 

 •discussions were always well sustained. Intellectual advancement and social 

 intercourse were made the objects of the society, and all efforts to make the 

 the society a seed store or a nursery agency were frowned down. 



