REPORT 



OF 



BATES COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BY SECRETARY H. SPEER, OF BUTLER. 



To the Officers and Jfemhers of the State Horticultural Society : 



As secretary of the Bates County Horticultural Society, I have 

 the honor to report our society in good working order, with sixty-five 

 members, a goodly portion of whom are live, active members. The in- 

 terest in our meetings is steadily increasing, and its membership ex- 

 tending to all parts of the county. The winter meetings are held at the 

 county seat: the summer meetings with the members in different parts 

 of the county, prove very pleasant in a social way, and a great deal 

 has been learned by inspecting the success and failures af the different 

 members as illustrated by different methods, and on different soils and 

 exposures. We have one or more papers read at each meeting, upon 

 subjects of interest, some of which have been of a high order, and all 

 calculated to instruct. The cream of the meetings, however, comes in 

 the discussion of the various subjects presented. If nothing more was 

 gained at the meetings, the horticultural zeal inspired by these meet- 

 ings would be ample compensation for all trouble. My prediction is 

 that our society has come to stay, and will live after its projectors have 

 passed away. And, taking a retrospective view of our successes and 

 failures, I see no good reason why, with the proper effort we may not 

 have a live local society in nearly every county in the state. Then will 

 the state society assume its proper position, and become the power for 

 good which it should be, and which we hope to see it in the near future. 

 Our society desires to acknowledge its obligations to the state society 



