REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 547 



OAKLAND COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORTED BY SECRETARY JAMES S. BRADFORD. 

 OFFICERS FOR 1887. 



President — J. Van Hoosen. 



Vice-President — A. J. Crosby. 



Secretary — James S. Bradford. 



Treasurer — Isaac B. Merritfc. 



Superintendent of Frtdt — A. E. Green. 



Superintendent of Vegetables — E. W. Jewell. 



Superintendent of Floiuers — I. B. Menitt. 



Superintendent of Grain — W. L. Coonley. 



Committee to revise premium list — LB. Merritt, E. W. Jewell, and A. E. 

 Oreen. 



Committee on meetings and programmes — H. A. Wyckoff, A. E. Green and 

 A. J. Crosby. 



The Oakland County liorticultural Society met in Oxford, Wednesday, 

 Feb. 16, 1887. There was a good attendance, and the papers read unusually 

 interesting. 



The attendance was not all that could be desired, but was as large as usual 

 at su -h meetings Tlie paper on "Womm as a Fruit Grower," read by Mrs. 

 M. E. Delano, of Thomas, was unusually interesting aud full of practical 

 thought; it was very highly commended. Robert Gibbons' practical sugges- 

 tions to the farmer was pat and well received. Hiram Andrews' paper on 

 *^ Bohemian Oats," was a very thorough expose of that contemptible fraud. 



The music and other exercises were good. 



The annual fair at Pontiac was well attended and was a success in nearly 

 every particular. The exhibition was good considering the dryness of the 

 season. The exhibition of apples, pears, peaches, grapes, flowers and grain 

 was good. The exhibition of vegetables was not as large as last year, owing 

 to the drouth. 



The most available source of information to all classes is experience, and 

 they that utilize the lessons learned are the best prepared to meet life's duties. 

 By experience, every studious, discerning farmer is brought face to face with 

 the fact that the times and conditions of the people demand a greater variety 

 of food to meet their wants. The day of bread, pork and potatoes as com- 

 prising the larder of the mass of the people, has passed away, except among 

 the needy few. We say needy few because relatively the needy class are in 

 the minority. This change, that all realize, must convince the farmers that 

 it requires diversity to meet the demand and diversity in production to secure 

 profit. 



A potent reason for more general crop production is the facilities for trans- 

 portation, both in rapidity of movement of products and the means afforded 

 for protection from waste by weather contingencies. 



Horticulture and pomology have come to be considered as more than side 



