DECEMBER MEETING. 285- 



<ind attractive exhibition, wliile by skillful numagetnent the actual good result- 

 ing is increased very largely. 



5. A strong effort should bo made to largely increase our permanent fund. 

 It is now decided by the Society that this fund shall be safely placed where it 

 will continually earn something for the Society, and there are 500 men in Mich- 

 igan that have sufficient interest in our Avork to pay ten dollars each into our 

 life fund and take life membership certificates, if the matter were oidy placed 

 right before them, and the method to be pursued is a problem worthy of imme- 

 diate thought in its solution. 



G. Our annual membership has of late fallen off, and although I believe this 

 to be no sign of disintegration, still, if our work is continuously good, it should 

 receive continuous sup})ort, and the men who give us their dollar one year have 

 the same reason for making a similar deposit the next ; and if this money is- 

 invested in our Society we get the interested assistance of the investor to see that 

 it develops something, and this interested assistance is what we most need. 



7. We need to make more use of our Agricultural College. To be sure, we 

 are receiving from several professors valuable services every year, but, inasmuch 

 as "we have no experimental gardens and orchards, would it not be wise to em- 

 ploy, in some measure, the College gardens and orchards for this purpose? I 

 do not mean by this to in any degree assume control of anything tliere or dic- 

 tate as to its management, because this would be outside of our domain ; but we 

 have already been offered the opportunity of suggesting experiments to be tried 

 there, and we have not lived up to our opportunities. My own thought is. that 

 "we should help by furnishing work to be done there in the line of experiment 

 to build up a department of horticulture that shall be a matter of pride to us as 

 well as to the College. We are invited to do this, and it is a great deal better 

 for us to make valuable suggestions than to find fault. I can see that the most 

 valuable kind of work can be done by linking together the work of our Society 

 and that which may be done at the College in our line, and am in favor of 

 seizing the opportunity. 



And in closing may I be allowed to remark that I have faith in our Society, 

 in its available working force, and in its ability to do generous service to the 

 horticultural interests of the State for an indefinite period, and, with discreet 

 management and interested assistance from those to whom it gives the most, 

 the lines that limit its usefulness may be made to continuously diverge. 



Henry G. lieynolds. Superintendent of Pomological Hall at the State Fair, 

 next gave a report of his work at the annual exposition : 



KEPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT REYNOLDS. 



To the President, Executive Committee, and Members of the State Pomological 



Society : 



Gentlemen, — Our printed programme is so full of important subjects that I 

 will make my report as short as may be. As regards special exhibits I will say 

 nothing, as the reports of Mr. Chilson and Mr. Guild will doubtless cover 

 these subjects. 



The display, as a whole, was most unprecedentedly and unexpectedly large — 

 indeed, much too large for the space allotted to us — and except for the 

 restriction limiting town and county exhibits of apples to twenty plates each, 

 we should have been entirely unable to have found space for tlie fruit offered. 

 This restriction excited a good deal of unfavorable comment from those wishing 

 to make an imposing display, but I think that further consideration will 



