8 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



time, though by no means to the same degree as many other moneyed 

 corporations. The restriction of income arising from this source 

 and from the failure of the expected dividend from Mount Auburn, 

 has been accepted by j'ou in a spirit of patience and wisdom which, 

 if continued, will ensure for us in its season a return of ample pros- 

 perity. 



And now, ladies and gentlemen, I take leave of an office in which 

 all my relations with j'ou have been pleasant from beginning to end. 

 I thank you heartily for the good will and friendliness you have 

 shown towards me throughout, and I congratulate j^ou no less 

 heartily on j'our choice of my successor. This choice is in itself a 

 promise of continued progress and fresh honor. Mr. President, I 

 welcome you to 3^our new office. 



Mr. Gray, on taking the chair, delivered the annual address, as 

 follows : — 



Address of Presidekt William Gray, Jr. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Horticulhiral Society : 



On entering upon the duties of the office to which you have called 

 me, I wish first to express my sense of the honor you have con- 

 ferred. It is a place of responsibility and trust, and has in the 

 past been filled so worthily that one may well feel anxious lest he 

 fall below the high standard which his predecessors have established. 

 That I will do the best that in me lies for the welfare of the Society, 

 is all that I can say ; and to enable me to do even this, I ask hearty 

 and cordial assistance from you all. 



I will not dwell on the past with which 3'ou are familiar. I 

 would rather today look forward and see what in the future de- 

 mands our attention ; and first in regard to the financial condition 

 of the Society. 



In common with the whole country, we are suflTering from the 

 general depression of business ; this affects our income, and the 

 lessening of our means must be met by a corresponding reduction 

 of our expenditures — a law which cannot be evaded with impunit}'^ 

 by corporations or individuals. This enforced economy has, how- 

 ever, its compensations ; it shows us how little of our real happiness 

 depends on what can be bought with money ; it forces us to find in 

 ourselves, or in our previous acquisitions, elements of interest not 

 suspected before ; it will bring back in the course of time, perhaps 



