200 STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



people, find has a right to expect ample support in return.-' The question with us is, 

 will we receive it? April loth I will ship you a box of our volumes for 187S if you 

 will place them in good hands. In connection therewith I ask two favors for our 

 society: 1st, that you keep a record of the names and addresses of those to whom 

 you give volumes, for our use; 2d, secure for us a few members,\if possible. A full 

 list of members for last year is in the report. Please send us full names and 

 addresses with the fee (one dollar), and I will return certificates. Please reply ou 

 enclosed postal card. Yours truly, CHAS. W. GARFIELD. 



If it were not my duty to report upon this matter to you, I should not refer 

 at all to the results of this effort I have received but ten lists of persons to 

 whom the reports have been given, and less than thirty-five annual members. 

 Let me explain, however, that I hope there are a good many reports from the 

 recipients of boxes already made out, which have not been sent in to me, and 

 I trust that before January 1st, 1880, our list of annual members will be 

 swelled to a more satisfactory figure. The volume of 1878 has received num- 

 bers of very favorable notices from pomologists of other States, and if the 

 call for it from outside our own borders is anv indication of its real value, it 

 certainly has a mission to fill in the progress of pomology in the west. It re- 

 mains to be seen whether the Michigan State Pomological Society can main- 

 tain the position given its Transactions. The solution of the problem depends 

 entirely upon the support which Michigan horticulturists will give their leading 

 organization ; and this leads me to say a few words concerning 



OUR MEMBERSHIP. 



We have at present one hundred and forty-nine life-members distributed as 

 follows: Monroe, 18; Kent, 18; Saginaw, 17; Grand Traverse, 15; 

 Ionia, 13; Kalamazoo, 9; Jackson, 9; Van Buren, 9; Wayne, 5; Berrien, 

 4; Ottawa, 4; Lenawee, 4; Ingham, 3; Muskegon, 2; Washtenaw, 2; 

 Montcalm, 2; Hillsdale, 2; Calhoun, 2; Bay, 1 ; Manistee,!; Clinton, 1 ; 

 Cass, 1; Tuscola, 1; Allegan, 1; Mason, 1; Oceana, 1; St. Joseph, 1; 

 New York, 1; Indiana, 1. 



This fund, $1490, at seven per cent, gives an annual increase of $104.30. 

 The annual membersliip fund amounts to $200 or less, and taken at its 

 maximum and added to the receipts from the permanent investment gives 

 only a little over three hundred dollars for the expense of carrying on tlie 

 society in its quarterly meetings, editing and distributing its annual reports, 

 and a great amount of other work which is only known to a few of those who 

 are shouldering the burden. It becomes necessary, then, for the society to 

 go into the show business, to eke out a living and maintain its position among 

 organizations of its character. We receive no State aid save the printing and 

 binding of our annual volume, and the furnishing of a room in which to stow 

 away our surplus volumes. AVe certainly ought to receive the voluntary 

 support of a people who claim to live in the most progressive fruit State in 

 the union, when it is so generally understood that the work of the society 

 lias been tlie power to elevate the State into its commanding position in 

 pomology. I have been figuring at some method by which we could secure 

 this aid; there is no doubt in my mind that there are a thousand people in 

 Michigan who would be willing and glad to each give a dollar a year in support 

 of this enterprise and would continue the annual membership indefinitely 

 upon being notified annually of the expiration of their certificates. Allow- 

 ing the population of the State to be a million and a half I have apportioned 

 the 1,000 members to the various counties of the State nearlv according to 



