REPORTS OF COUNTY SOCIETIES. 219 



This being the annual meeting, reports of the officers were called 

 for. President Cordell read his report as follows : 



Gentlemen and Members of the Society — In my review of events 

 transpiring in the cycle of time marked by today's monthly meeting — 

 which is also our annual meeting — I shall be brief, having no triumphs 

 to recount, although nothing has occurred in that time to discourage a 

 man possessed of sufficient energy to battle with the natural enemies 

 of the farmer and horticulturist. Our membership has been about 

 stationary, our committee work has been about the usual order, but 

 perhaps a little less labor was performed in the way of investigating 

 insect enemies than in the previous year. 



Our monthly meetings, though not large, have generally proved 

 full of intejest and of more than ordinary value to those in attendance. 

 Some of our members who were here in a perfunctory manner at 

 first have so grown into the work, and expanded with the work of the 

 Society that I believe they would be loth indeed to dispense with what 

 they have come to regard as a pleasurable recurrence. In this con- 

 nection, one thing must always seerp a mystery to us, viz : that where 

 at least one hundred men and women should meet, full of interest, ten 

 to twenty marks the limit. They tell us on the streets, '"we can't bear 

 in mind your meeting days, but we always read with great interest 

 your published proceedings." 



We shall have a report from the Secretary and Treasurer which 

 releives me from entering into details more fully, but I must be al- 

 lowed right here to drop a note of warning: The profuse fruit crop of 

 1895, may bequeath to us a legacy that will linger longer and produce 

 more direful results than the weary labors and low prices. The de- 

 fective fruit, of which there were thousands of bushels, will produce 

 winged insects by millions, ready to contend for their share of the fruit 

 of 1896. Foresight and preventive measures may do much to reduce 

 losses from this source to a minimum. Our duty lies along this line. 



Allow me to renew my plea for help for the Secretary. His duties 

 while not irksome are too exacting to permit him to take any part in 

 our discussions. 



The claims upon our time occasioned by the heavy fruit crop pre- 

 vented us from making any display away from home, but we had sev- 

 eral creditable displays at home, both of grapes and of apples. I hope 

 this feature of our work will be improved on each succeeding year. 



How to dispose of the fruit is destined to become a question sec- 

 ond only in importance to that of how to produce the very best quality. 

 In this connection comes the question of good roads. These we must 

 and will have. They are of the utmost importance to every industry 



