Winter Meeting. ' 269 



reports and answer our queries, the same as do our members. To 

 reach them requires 1,500 or 2,000 circulars or programs each time 

 we send out such, and of reports the number is twice this. Again, 

 to let those know who are not members or corespondents, we take 

 care that county newspapers in every county in our State get all 

 our circulars, reports and State report of the Society, so that we 

 present all our matters before the people in a systematic and 

 prominent way through 600 of our county papers. 



We have never thought that what knowledge or information or 

 special facts which come to the attention of the Society shall 

 be reserved for members only, but that every man of the State inter- 

 ested shall get just as much out of the Society as any member, if he 

 only wants it and asks for it. All this information is free for all if 

 you will just take and use it. Like the air we breathe, we have all 

 we use and no more. The State furnishes the money for the bene- 

 fit of all interested in our State or wanting the information alike. 

 If he is a member or not, makes no difference as to his right to the 

 best the Society has to offer or possesses. 



The only fact of membership that is beyond reach of the non- 

 member is the social fellowship which one gets from meeting and 

 knowing and loving one another as friends and co-workers. There 

 is a sort of enthusiasm which members get by association with 

 each other and with prominent speakers that those not members 

 fail to get or appreciate. Membership has to do with the official 

 organization of the Society, and its management and its responsi- 

 bility to the State. It has never been the aim of this Society, by 

 offering premiums of $1.00 or $2.00 for membership, either in 

 books or magazines, or nursery stock, seeds, flowers or plants, al- 

 though we have been solicited to do so over and over again by pub- 

 lishers, seedsmen and nurserymen. We believe, and have always 

 held, that the interests of the State and the benefits derived from 

 the reports and circulars of information and the enthusiasm and 

 instruction which we obtain from meeting with each other were 

 enough incentives for membership in this Society, and should in- 

 duce thousands to become members. 



The faithful work of many of our old members for the past 

 20 and 30 years gives the best evidence of work well done, and re- 

 sults have fully justified this position, for there has been nothing 

 doing in all this land, in a horticultural way, but we have had 

 some part in its success. 



The officers of some states are elected by the life members 

 only. The Secretary of some of the states is elected by the Execu- 



