DECEMBER MEETING. 277 



COLLECTION OF JIKi'OllTS. 



At tlio aiuuuil meeting- in Coldwjitcr one year ago (juite au important 

 resolution was passed by tlie Executive Committee, and one which involved an 

 indefinite amount of labor to continue through the whole year of 1877. I give 

 it in full : 



" JicKoIved, Tiiat the Secretary be instructed to secure as soon as practicable, 

 two hundred copies of each volume of our lleports already issued, or as near 

 that number as may be, and that he keep an exact record of volumes received 

 and disbursed," 



Upon coming into the office of Secretary, there was not a complete set of 

 volumes on hand, so that the work began at the bottom, without even a 

 nucleus. There should be no blame resting upon my predecessor, nor upon 

 any one for this state of things, for the Society in its poverty had no place in 

 which to preserve a single copy of our reports, and there was no way to do but 

 send them out where they would do the greatest amount of good. I presume 

 Secretary Thompson preserved for awhile a few copies of the volumes — such as 

 he could carry with him, but with the constant call for these, which it is 

 impossible to resist, they would not last very long. 



And I wish to call the attention of the Society to the fact that the above reso- 

 lution was unanimously passed when there was no place to deposit the volumes 

 should the Secretary be so fortunate as to secure any. It was trusting a good 

 deal in Providence to provide a place, but it was necessary that somebody have 

 a few of these back numbers, at least for preservation, and as I shall show 

 hereafter, neither Providence, the State, nor tlie Society lias yet provided a 

 place for these volumes. 



After conferring with Secretary Thompson, it was decided, because of his 

 ill health, that I proceed in this matter immediately, even before I came into 

 the position of Secretary, and to this end in the month of December last, letters 

 were sent to every place in the State where there was tlie least promise of 

 success in securing one or more volumes. During the next three months 

 upwards of five hundred letters were dispatched on this errand, and to the 

 credit of all those who had copies not in use, be it said that a generous response 

 came from all directions, which necessitated frequent, even daily calls for a 

 large part of the time, at express and freight offices. I was quite astonished at 

 the success of the movement, but one item of experience was quite amusing and. 

 altogetlier a credit to our Society. My first venture was to the office of the 

 Secretary of State, who had none to spare, but suggested there might be some 

 volumes lying in tlie county clerk's offices, that had not been called for. I 

 immediately dispatched letters to a large number of these offices, and received 

 about the same reply from all but one to the effect that the volumes of the 

 Michigan Pomological Society were always taken, but that of any other State 

 documents sent out there were considerable supplies. 



15ACK VOLUMES OX HAXD. 



As a result of this collection, there came into my hands, during the year 

 ending December 1st, six luindved and fiftv-seven volumes of the years 1871, 

 '72, '73, '74, and '75. 



Through the kindness of the authorities at the Agricultural College, these 

 volumes, except what have been sent away in exchange and to institutions, are 

 on deposit in tlio basement of the college Iniilding. They are safe from neither 

 mice nor mould, but no better place could be secured. 



