OFFICIAL REPORTS. 13 



lative committee, who willingly dropped their personal work at any 

 moment when help was re([uired. As Mr. Wyiuan Klliot ia chair- 

 man of the legislative committee, and I am sure he will fail to speak 

 of this in his report, I will take occasion to say that, although an 

 exceedingly busy man, at every call made upon his services he re- 

 sponded promptlj', and went to St. Paul a number of times in con- 

 nection with this business. Other members who resjionded to sim- 

 ilar calls were our honored president, the genial professor of horti- 

 culture at the experiment station and Prof. Hays, our very good 

 friend; nor must I forget Prof. W. W. Pendergast, whose oflice at the 

 capitol made it convenient for us to call upon him, and who gave us 

 the benefit of his influence on every needed occasion. 



We are to be congratulated in that all of our plans for the perma- 

 nency of the work of the society on the higher and broader plane 

 upon which we have stepped have been full}- consummated. These 

 plans include, first, the change in the constitution, which was found 

 necessary to give the character of permanence to our work and pre- 

 vent anj' hastj' orundesired change in the management, involving 

 a possible overthrow of matured plans; second, the legislation 

 needed to authorize the publication of our report in the form of a 

 monthly magazine; third, an increased appropriation; and, fourth, 

 the development of our library. The fifth object, to which we look 

 forward with assurance and that faith which takes hold upon the 

 future, is a permanent abiding place for the society. Just how or 

 when this may come about is still indefinite, but we are assured 

 that an association with such elements of life in it as this contains 

 will, in the nature of things, in time become the owner of a liome. 



Under the new law the magazine may be increased in size some- 

 what, not exceeding fifty pages per month, and it is the intention in 

 the future to supplement the papers and proceedings of the associ- 

 ation by selections from the doings of other societies and from hor- 

 ticultural publications, and to embellish it to a larger degree than 

 heretofore by attractive engravings. There is one feature of the 

 magazine which its editor would gladly see developed, and that is 

 the page set aside under the title of "Your Corner," to be used by 

 our members. So far there is small indication of a desire on your 

 part to use this space. It might be the means of adding much to 

 the interest of the magazine, which, you must remember, is yours, 

 and perhaps in the future you may think proper to give this feature 

 more attention. 



LlHRAKY. — Thelibrary is rapidlj' increasing, and visitors will see 

 at a glance that the space allotecj in the oflice for this purpose is 

 already very fully occupied. The number of volunies received this 

 year is about eighty. This does not include the exchanges, i. e., the 

 horticultural papers and magazines, of which we receive regularlj' 

 about thirty, nor the reports fii the experiment stations, of which 

 there are fifty-four in the United States, nearlj' all of which are send, 

 ing their bulletins to our oflice. Much of this loose material, bulle. 

 tins and periodicals, will be put into shape later and bound. This 

 involves a small expense, but so far this has been met witliout cost 

 to the society. 



