THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



In the preparation of this department of our volume for 1881 I desire to 

 acknowledge my indebtedness to a large number of appreciative friends who 

 have, by kind words concerning previous numbers of the Portfolio, induced me 

 to continue the work. I have not reached the ideal I have long had in view, 

 and this because of a faulty method of work which seems impossible to over- 

 come with the multitude of duties that devolve upon the Secretary of the 

 Michigan Horticultural Society. If the Portfolio could be made tlie only work 

 of the year it might more nearly approximate the finished document contem- 

 plated in the original conception of the work. 



I would like to save in jottings the many good things dropped in conver- 

 sation with successful growers who never write for the press and rarely write 

 me letters. Some of the most valuable suggestions are secured in this way, 

 and my purpose has been to frame a Portfolio largely from this kind of 

 material. But although several times I have gathered the matter for a work 

 of this kind the year gets too near its close before an attempt can be made to 

 put it in shape for the press, and annually thus far necessity has compelled me 

 to take the alternative of a more limited field. 



The newspapers have been my most valued contributors, and I take pleasure ' 

 in announcing the names of those from which I have gathered crumbs for the 

 Portfolio of 1881.* New York Tribune, Kalamazoo Gazette, Michigan 

 Farmek, Eural New Yorker, The Garden, American Naturalist, Western 

 Rural, Gardeners' Monthly, Germantown Telegraph, New York Times, 

 American Eural Home, Geneva Continent, Vick's Magazine, Indiana 

 Farmer, Kentucky Live Stock Eecord, Post and Tribune, Farmer and 

 Fruitgrower, Country Gentleman, Husbandman, Vick's Floral Guide, 

 Green's Fruit Grower, New York Sun, Boston Furniture Exchange, Eural 

 World, Boston Journal, Seed Time and Harvest, Grange Visitor, Scribner's 

 Monthly, Practical Farmer, Ohio Farmer, American Agriculturist, 

 PliAiRiE Farmer, Gardener's Chronicle, Hartford Post, Iowa College Quar- 



* Those pviuleU in smaU Capitals have been sent me during ihe year I'ree of expense. 



