STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 53 



couragement rather thaa an incentive to the improvement of our 

 work, an effort was made to get the law amended. Early in Feb- 

 ruary, under instructions from the executive committee, I drew an 

 amendatory bill, placed it in the hands of Hon. S. M. Emery, of 

 the lower house of the legislature, who took charge of it, and it 

 became a law. It was thought that for the present we could do 

 with a less number of copies than the old law ostensibly gave us, 

 and so the new bill was drawn for 3,500 copies instead of 5,000 as 

 was before, the number of pages increased from 300 to 500 as a 

 maximum limit, and the whole edition to be bound if necessary. 

 Practically we did not ask an order for binding the whole edition, 

 and probably never shall. We can always use a part in paper 

 covers, and it is to our interest as well as our duty to economize for 

 the state as much as possible in the matter. Up to 1883 we have 

 never been able to get enough bound copies to supply our members 

 and exchanges. Only a favored few could secure a bound volume ; 

 the rest had to take paper covers — mere pamphlets — which are pre- 

 sumed to have gone usually the way of pamphlets : first down flat 

 on the shelves around the house, dust covered, disarranged and 

 always in the way; then up garret, and finally to the rag gatherer 

 for a tin whistle ; and when wanted for reference to help out of a 

 difficulty in the garden or orchard, never found. Now, friends, 

 thanks to the liberality of the legislature, we have a volume that 

 we are not ashamed of. It is printed in large type so that the old 

 folks can read it in the evenmg ; it can stand alone on the library 

 shelf; its back is broad enough to have a title there that can be 

 distinguished from other books; it is popular; folks want it; one 

 member of the legislature asked me for 200 copies; I get any quan- 

 tity of letters complimenting it ; we are not ashamed to send it to 

 Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Illinois or Michigan, asking an exchange 

 for their reports. It is a standard that we must respect for our-: 

 silves ; improve it as much as possible, but never go below it. It 

 will oblige us to always have good programs at meetings and do 

 our level best to put in our time to advantage ; and lastly, as I 

 know from the experience of the last six months, it gives us a repu- 

 tation that needs only good honest work on our part hereafter to 

 secure the services of the best writers in the horticultural world 

 for future volumes. Says one of the leading writers of papers at 

 this meeting — a writer from abroad, of continental fame : "I con- 

 sider it an honor to write for your report." Said another : " I 

 value it too highly not to be anxious to earn a copy of the next 

 one by writing a paper for it." And I have no fear, if we keep on 



