ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 6, 1877. 195 



education which ought never to cease, and to press on to fuller 

 knowledge and more enlarged views. This, I take it, is one of 

 those useful ends which our Society proposes to cany out, and 

 I am glad to see that ever since it was formed in 1854 the printed 

 Transactions testify that this end has been kept steadily in view. 

 The prizes annually offered by the Society for essays on subjects 

 connected with Arboriculture call forth, and will, I doubt not, con- 

 tinue to encourage the production of those valuable articles which 

 tend to foster that exactness of mind on which I have thought it 

 right so strongly to insist, and to promote that taste for literary 

 subjects among the members of the Society which day by day will 

 produce fuller fruits. 



No society, however, like ours, can exist without adequate funds 

 and an adequate membership. These, as I have said before, have 

 been and are steadily and surely increasing. Much, however, is 

 still required, and I trust that the appeal which I and other 

 members of the Society make to landowners and foresters through- 

 out the kingdom will not be in vain, and that in both these re- 

 spects we shall rapidly improve. When we look back to what 

 the income of the Society was in 1858-59, to what it was in 

 1861-62, and compare it with our present position, we have much 

 reason to be pleased. 



In 1858-59 the number of the members was 168, and the 

 amount of income £39, 10s. In 1861-62 the members numbered 

 158, and the income was £30, 18s. 6d. In 1866-67 the member- 

 ship had increased to 284, and the income to £140, 6s. lOd. In 

 1874-75 the members numbered 726, and the income amounted to 

 £304 ; and in 1876-77 the roll contained the names of 746 

 members, and the sum at the credit of the Society was £351. 

 To-day the number of members will be still further increased, as 

 over forty new names have been received for election. This 

 advance we owe very much to the valuable services tendered to 

 the Society by my distinguished predecessors in this chair — Pro- 

 fessor Balfour, Dr Cleghorn, and Mr Hutchison of Carlowrie. To 

 all of these gentlemen the Society is most deeply indebted. Pro- 

 fessor Balfour has a European reputation which renders it an honour 

 to any society to be presided over by him. The great experience 

 that Dr Cleghom has acquired by a lengthened and distinguished 

 service in India, where he acted in a responsible and high position 

 in the Forest Department, added to the great love which he bears 

 to the science, and the deep interest which he has always shown for 



