56 ANNUAL REPORT. 



by this prompt publication which Prof. Budd, in the largeness of 

 his views, enabled us to make. Blot out these Russian pages from 

 our Report of 1883, and think with what snail-like pace and mole- 

 like vision we should now be groping. In the same spirit I have 

 contributed whatever materials I had in hand freely whenever 

 asked for by other Secretaries, and a glance at our program will 

 show any one, that our work at this meeting is to be very much 

 benefited by contributions from other states. 



In reference to some topics neccessary to be treated of at this 

 meeting to round out our program, I was utterly unable, after re- 

 peated invitations sent out, to engage a suitable writer from our own 

 State, and it was only after attending the meetings of other socie- 

 ties that the vacancy was supplied. And this reminds me to say, that 

 so long as the laboring oar in correspondence, the selection of topics 

 and writers for our programs, in getting up the current horticul- 

 tural points of the year, used in the compiling and editing of the 

 Annual Report, rests upon the Secretary, he should, in order to 

 do himself and the society justice, and in order to fairly bear the 

 responsibility that he is held to for a good report, be an ex officio 

 delegate to all the Horticultural and Pomological Societies, at 

 which meetings our society is to be represented, whenever he can 

 attend them, with such other of our members as may be appointed. 



MEMBERSHIP. 



Our membership is steadily but too slowly increasing. I would 

 again urge you to devise some scheme of canvassing to secure a 

 larger constituency. We have only about one hundred members; 

 we ought to have a thousand. What is our mission? To push 

 fruit culture — yes, apple growing — to the northrn limit of the 

 wheat plant ; to make it successful everywhere in the Northwest ; 

 to find or make the winter apple that shall unite to the beauty and 

 quality of the Wealthy, the keeping qualities of the Willow Twig, 

 the winter hardiness of the Transcendent and the non-blighting of 

 the Duchess of Oldenburg. To find the adaptation and the proper 

 culture of forest trees and domestic plants for all our varied belts of 

 soil and climate ; to overcome the dificulties of all tree culture and 

 all horticulture ; to promote a love and practice of rural adorn- 

 ment around the homes of our people. Surely, these are aims good 

 enough and popular enough to enlist public interest and extend 

 our membership if we go about it right. But if the mountain will 

 not come to Mahomet, what then? Mahomet must go to the 



