HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 239 



sive northern region, as may be gathered from the following 

 pleasant complimentary notice, from that reliable seedsman, Mr. 

 Peter Henderson, of New York, who writes: 



Xew York, July 31, 1888. 

 »S'. D. Hillman, Secretary, etc., 



Dear Sir: I am in receipt of the annual report of the Min- 

 nesota Horticultural Society, and a glance at it indicates that it 

 is exceedingly well gotten up, and must be very interesting read- 

 ing. It is certainly to the credit of you Western men to get up 

 anything so successful as your Society seems to be. With our 

 two millions of population of the city of Il^ew York and vicinity, 

 we have never been able to permanently keep alive a horticul- 

 tural society; we have one in existence now, but I am afraid it 

 is on its last legs. What is the reason of it? I have tried my 

 best to discover and have failed to get at any cause, but it has 

 been tried for the last fifty years, and in no case has the society 

 existed more than fifteen years, and then in a from-hand-to- 

 mouth sort of way. Yours very truly, 



Peter Henderson & Son. 



It is unnecessary here to add, perhaps, that this Society has 

 much to do to make it in the future a wide-awake and really pro- 

 gressive institution. Nor can its officers, however earnest, do 

 all the work required. They need the co-operation and united 

 support of all its members and earnest friends. 



volume sixteen. 



The last number of our transactions was issued in the month 

 of June. Though less voluminous than the preceding number, 

 it still contained 464 pages. Typograpically the work was 

 executed with much care by Messrs. J. W. Cunningham & Co., 

 the painstaking publishers. Of the 3,500 copies issued, 900 

 were bound in cloth, including 300 at the expense of the 

 Society. The larger portion of the edition was distributed 

 among our members, local societies, and among those entitled 

 by law to receive a copy. 



Many complimentary notices were received concerning our 

 report which speak with credit of the work of the Society. 



In conclusion it may be proper to proper to add that an apol- 

 ogy is due the Society for this hastily prepared and quite too 

 lengthy report. We are admonished that our space is limited, 

 and that it is highly important that brevity and conciseness of 

 statement is required on every page, in order to bring our next 

 volume within reasonable limits, and to secure the publication 

 of what is truly valuable. 



