54 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
for the superintendent of the horticultural exhibit at the World’s 
Columbian Exposition, in which work the society has a special interest. 
At this point, I take the liberty of suggesting that the compensation of 
our librarian is quite out of proportion to the labor, much of it manual, 
which devolves upon him. The reception and distribution of reports by 
express, freight and mail, to which the assistant librarian, Mr. HB. A. 
Cuzner attends, involves much work and he is much underpaid by the 
$10.00 voted for librarian fees iast year. 
ADVERTISING. 
The experiment has been tried the past year, to a limited extent, f 
getting the assistance of the press to advertise the work of our society. 
The effort has been reasonably successful, about one-half of the papers 
approached having run our notices from one to three months, the only 
compensation being a cloth bound copy of the last report. A large number 
of calls for reports, enclosing postage, have come from thissource as well as 
several new memberships. Along the same line was the distribution of 
printed letter heads and envelopes to the various officers of the society. 
The expense of this was small and the results satisfactory. 
Might it not be a good plan to furnish the members of committees with 
a limited amount of society stationery as a continual reminder of the im- 
portance of the work which is placed upon them? 
COMMITTEES. 
The various committees to whose charge is given a very important work: 
much akin to that of the experiment stations, were appointed last year by 
the executive committee soon after the annual meeting. Immediately 
after their appointment notices were sent out to the appointees and an 
effort was made to secure a formal acceptance of the appointments. 
This was partially successful, only one or two refusing the appointments, 
although a large number failed to respond. 
Doubtless often the members best adapted and most willing to work 
on these committees are not selected and if some plan could be adopted 
through which the executive committee might be more fully informed 
as to the preparation and willingness to perform the various branches of 
committee work, it would greatly assist the advancement of the object 
of the society. Perhaps an invitation to the members to suggest the 
lines along which they prefer to work would bring about the desired 
result. ‘ 
EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
A new departure has been taken this year in regard to the experiment 
stations connected with the society, in the direction of centralizing them 
for the purpose of connecting their work directly with that of the central 
experiment station. 
The central station is located at the University Farm,under the charge 
of Prof. S. B. Green, under whose directions also are the ten sub-stations, 
fairly well scattered over the southern half of the state. An effort will 
doubtless be made to locate stations farther north to cover all of the 
settled portions of the state. 
Much practical good is expected to result from the systematic efforts 
now being made in this direction, especially in connection with the work 
of the various committees who are making reports from what are practi- 
cally experiment stations. 
