16 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the executive comtnittee has done, but I think it is best that I do not 

 disclose all that has been done the past year. I thank you. 



Mr. Barnes, (Wis.) : Did this society show the 5,400 plates 

 asa society ? 



Mr. Elliot : Not as a society, but it was by the membership, 

 the people of the state. 



The President : I will explain for the benefit of the dele- 

 gates present that the executive board forms the working 

 force of the society. It would be impossible to bring the 

 society together at various times during the year when it is 

 necessary to do certain work, so it is delegated to the executive 

 board. We have only two annual meetings — the summer and 

 winter meetings — when the society as a whole has an 

 opportunity to take part in the work, and in the interim the 

 executive board does the work required. 



On motion of Mr. Dartt the report of the executive 

 board was adopted and a vote of thanks tendered the officers 

 for the very able and efficient manner in which they have per- 

 formed their various duties during the past year. 



SECRETARY'S ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1898. 



A. W. LATHAM, SEC'Y. 



Members of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society:— 



I do not intend at this time to burden you with a long statistical 

 report of the status and doings of our society, but only in a general 

 way to point out a few of the more prominent landmarks in our 

 work. 



The year just closing has been one of much prosperity for our 

 society ; indeed, I may properly say, has been the most prosperous 

 one we have known. With our bills all paid and a respectable bal- 

 ance in the treasury, with a large and valuable addition to our 

 library, with the credit of such an extraordinary exhibition at the 

 state fair, with an annual membership roll larger than ever before^ 

 and larger, I may safely say, than that of any other similar organi- 

 zation in our country, with a steadily growing life roll, I don't know 

 but we have some right to stand off at a little distance and smile at 

 ourselves and be reasonably glad. With these growing facilities 

 and these patent results, affecting the society itself, comes also, and 

 the writer believes in a still larger degree, the growth of the objects 

 for which alone the society exists. The leaven of horticulture, true 

 and good, planted and nourished by this society, is surely at work, 

 and its results are easily apparent in our midst. But are we satis- 

 fied with this? No. Our aspiration is as wide as the state itself, 

 and includes every person within its borders. There is yet, and 

 ever will be, the old problem to solve: How shall we reach all who 



