ANNUAL MEETING AT SAGINAW. 477 - 



SCHEDULE— Confmt^ed. 



2nd Tuesday in December Illinois. 



3d " " " -- ..Kansas. 



" " " " Kentucky. 



1st Tuesday after 1st Monday in January Indiana. 



" " " " " ..Colorado. 



" 2d " " " Nebraska. 



" " 3d " " " Iowa. 



" " " " Pennsylvania. 



" " 4th " " " Minnesota. 



.-Western New York. ' 



" " 1st " "February Wisconsin. 



" " 2d " " " Michigan (winter meetingy. 



The communication was referred to the Executive Board, which subse- 

 quently reported that as far as our annual meeting was concerned the scheme 

 could be adopted, but our winter meeting must be a movable session on many 

 accounts, and we would always arrange it to not conflict with horticultural 

 conventions of sister States. 



The society next listened to the 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



The close of the eighteenth year of the life of our society brings us again 

 to an appropriate time for a review of its doings in the past, and for the 

 devising of plans for another year's operations. 



We are fortunate in the fact that we have an efficient secretary, who is our 

 chief active representative, and, since he has mainly been the effective instru- 

 ment in our past operations, much of the detail, as well as the result thereof, 

 may be expected to appear in his report. Such being the case, we may be 

 expected to limit our remarks to such past experiences as may be supposed to 

 indicate the probable needs of the future; and to the suggestion of possibly 

 new or desirable fields of future effort. 



While, doubtless, more than nine-tenths of our entire population are more 

 or less directly interested in horticulture, the actual membership of this soci- 

 ety, which is the sole representative of that interest for the State at large, is 

 less than one for each three thousand of our population, including, as we do, 

 the entire membership of local auxiliary societies, together with the life 

 members. Such being the case, the conclusion seems inevitable, that very 

 many persons attend the socity's meetings, and freely participate in its delib- 

 erations, while omitiajDg the corresponding obligation, to assume the responsi- 

 bilities of actual membership. 



Such being the condition of affairs, and considering the fact that from 

 membership fees must necessarily come the means to defray necessary 

 expenses, this process of accumulating valuable information, at the expense 

 of others, can scarcely be deemed creditable. As a possible partial remedy 

 for so undesirable a condition of affairs, we last year suggested what we now 

 again, and more earnestly recommend, that membership be regarded as taken 

 in perpetuit}', and that there be a recognized obligation on the part of a 

 member to renew annually, his membership being suspended in case such 

 payment shall be omitted. Such arrangement would tend to create the feel- 



