284 State Horticultural Society. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE GOOD OE OUR SOCIETY. 



(N. F. Murray, Oregon, Mo.) 



Our worthy secretary has been very Hberal in assigning me a broad 

 subject, one that might take in an endless variety of suggestions, all 

 of which might either directly or indirectly prove to be for the good of 

 our Society, but I shall be brief and speak plainly to the subject present- 

 ing for your consideration some of the more important things we may 

 do for the good of our Society. 



All personal interests and ambitions of each individual member 

 should be subservient to whatever is for the general good of the Society, 

 and all questions, of whatever nature, that can not be agreed upon and 

 amicably settled, within the Society in a reasonable time, should be 

 thrown out and left to a verdict of the common people. We should have 

 a home for our Society, permanently located, where we could have a 

 spacious room in which to hold our meetings and where all our annual 

 meetings should be held, and in addition, to this we ought to have rooms 

 for our library, and our jar and other fruits. 



I would suggest Columbia as a suitable place for a permanent home, 

 for the reason that it is centrally located, a seat of learning, the home of 

 our State University with all of its departments, and splendid equipment ; 

 and if located there it would give an opportunity to all of the students to 

 attend our meetings, which would certainly be of special interest to the 

 students of agriculture, and horticulture. In addition to this it would 

 place our library within the reach of the students, interested in the pur- 

 suit of horticulture, which in the end would certainly reflect credit upon 

 the work of our Society. Our little library of splendid reports contain- 

 ing the best thoughts of our most able and practical horticulturists, 

 should be enlarged by continually adding thereto not only our own re- 

 ports, but in addition thereto the very best works obtainable on horti- 

 culture, forestry and landscape gardening. 



It would no doubt help the Society very much if all the individual 

 members would read and study a library more thoroughly than we do, 

 and then put the knowledge gained into practice; and in order to get 

 time to do this I suggest that we relegate a very large percentage of the 

 worthless literature, that now invades our homes, to the waste basket and 

 to the bon-fire. It would be for the good of our Society and the indi- 

 vidual as well if our young men would give less time to sport and more 

 to the study of horticulture- I am not forgetful of the old saying that 



