TWENTY THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 53 



To the members and friends of the Michigan State Horticultural Society: 



At the last general meeting of the society, at Port Huron, it was proposed 

 to change the date of the annual meeting to the week intervening between 

 Christmas and New Year's day; but, by an oversight, the proposition to do 

 so was omitted. The object sought was two-fold: ( 1). to bring our annual 

 meeting to occur on a ditf'erent week from those of several adjacent states; 

 (2) and to enable our members to avail themselves of the reduced railroad 

 rates offered by most roads at that season. 



Conference with various members of the society indicated a very general 

 approval of the proposed change; and, to enable the society to perfect the 

 change on this occasion, a meeting of the society was called at Grand 

 E-apids, on the occasion of the holding of their annual fairs, at which 

 meeting the proposition was submitted and unanimously adopted. 



To. complete such change the constitution requires that the proposition 

 be submitted and adopted at the next regular meeting. To this end the 

 Secretary will doubtless submit at this meeting the draft of a constitutional 

 amendment, needful for the purpose. 



Since the constitution already provides that officers shall hold over until 

 their successors shall be elected, it was deemed proper to defer the annual 

 meeting to the proposed date, thus lengthening the year 1892 by a month. 



THE STATE COLUMBIAN COMMISSION. 



To persons conversant with the needs of horticulture, it can not be 

 regarded as otherwise than unfortunate that, in the make-up of the State 

 Columbian commission, there appears to be no person possessing a known 

 and recognized acquaintance or sympathy with horticulture. This cir- 

 cumstance is the more to be regretted in a state which, like Michigan, has 

 heretofore won enviable prominence for its horticultural possibilities, as 

 well as for its actual development of this class of interests. 



Recognizing such deficiency, and realizing that the State Horticultural 

 society included in its membership, and those in sympathy with it, a very 

 large proportion of our best horticultural experts, early efforts were put 

 forth to induce the placing of this class of interests in charge of this 

 society, at least to such extent as should enlist the hearty cooperation of 

 its members and the active employment of the facilities at its command. 



HORTICULTURE IGNORED. 



To indicate how thoroughly these efforts were ignored, it is only neces- 

 sary to analyze the composition of the committee to whom was committed 

 the task of bringing together material for such a pomological exhibit as 

 was expected to thoroughly maintain, and even more than maintain, the 

 well earned reputation of the state, at the approaching Columbian Exposi- 

 tion — a task which its more or less discordant comjiosition has, to a consid- 

 erable extent, rendered nugatory; while the treatment meted out to it, 

 from the date of its organization, has, to a greater or less extent, served to 

 paralyze its operations. 



Under existing conditions, so far as I have learned, very little has been 

 done upon that portion of the state horticultural exhibit required to be in 

 place at the opening on May 1, 189^. I have been able to put up twenty- 

 five or thirty cans of peaches, pears, quinces, and grapes; but this portion 



