248 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



OUR REPORT. 



Altliougli our report has been well received and received many 

 encoiiiums, yet I trust that each year we can make it better and better.. 

 The great drawback is the length of time it takes to get it published 

 and the necessary delay. Last year we were promised it months be^ 

 fore it was ready, and these continual delays are provoking. The 

 printers have so much on their hands they cannot help themselves. 



One of our members wrote me that he was tired of waiting and 

 if he could not get his soon he did not want it. Yet it was not my 

 fault but the delay with the printers. 



Now this year I have half of the Mss. ready and they promise to- 

 begin the work immediately after this meeting. If they will do so we 

 can get the report out much sooner than ever before. 



I believe that we might have an improvement in our plan if we 

 could have meetings every three months and then publish a pamphlet 

 immediately after each meeting with a complete report of the meet- 

 ing. The matter w^ould not get so old or so dry, but would be fresh 

 and new and do much more good than can be done now. 



It would cost no more to have them published in quarterly than 

 in yearly and then the postage would not be one-fourth as much as it 

 now is. 



Our report should go out as a quarterly publication to do the most 

 good. 



OUR SOCIETY. 



Some persons are claiming that the State has no authority to give 

 our State society any money, because we are not organized as a State 

 body and under the control of the executive. 



jS"ow if there is any officer or society in the State that accomplishes 

 anything near as ranch as this society does with the amount of money 

 used, I should be glad to see them. I believe, and know that our so- 

 ciety has been the means of letting the world know of the vast capa- 

 bilities of our State as a fruit country by its displays of fruits in 

 different parts of the country than any other one thing. These dis- 

 plays have brought hundreds of buyers into the State for our apples 

 and induced hundreds of persons to come here and settle. 



It may take a united effort on the part of all members of our 

 society and of the local societies to prevent our being defeated in our 

 appropriation. 



