260 ANNUAL REPORT. 



only about 200; our reports are limited in their circulation and we 

 ought to manage in some way to place the information brought out in 

 these meetings and these experiments into the hands of more of the 

 people of the State. The organization of local societies is a work that 

 has been materially neglected, and I think we ought, as a Society, and 

 that our Executive Committee ought to do more in regard to the organ- 

 ization of these local societies and getting reports from them; and 

 when a society is organized we ought to assist in keeping up that 

 organization. We have heretofore set aside |200 a year as a reserve 

 fund; we find that under the law we can not do that. I suggest that 

 we do as the Michigan society did; they issued a fifty-page "Primer 

 of Horticulture"; they had ten thousand copies struck off, and put into 

 general circulation throughout the State. That * 'Primer of Horti- 

 culture" was made up of articles on the subject of fruit from some of 

 the most practical men that could be found, by some of the best men 

 of that society, and it has done a grand work in that state, I will 

 offer the following resolution : That it is the sense of this Society 

 that any balance of funds over and above current expenses be 

 expended in the work of organizing local societies and the distribution 

 of horticultural literature, under the direction of the Executive Com- 

 mittee. 



President Smith,. That would provide for spending all the money^ 



Mr. Smith. I only wish to include what we have held as a reserve 

 fund. I would sooner take the chances of using that $200 in the 

 way I have suggested, than any other, and then if necessary, go to 

 the legislature and ask them to pay it. I think that |200 expended 

 in work of that kind throughout the State would increase the interest 

 in horticulture generally and greatly increase our influence, as a 

 Society. 



Mr. Grimes. I am afraid your opinion would be very liable to 

 mistake. 



Mr. Smith. Our appropriation is small. We want a membership 

 outside the ranks of our two hundred members; we want to get two 

 thousand or ten thousand men, if possible, in the State interested in 

 horticulture, and to do that we must place horticultural literature in 

 the hands of more people. 



Mr. Harris. I don't see any necessity whatever for the project pro- 

 posed. I think we are expending our funds where they will tell to the 

 best advantage of the Society. I do not see the necessity of making 

 it compulsory with our Executive Committee to publish a Primer of 



