REPORT 



OF THE 



LIBRARY COMMITTEE, 



FOR THE YEAR 1878. 



Your Committee beg to submit the following report on the con- 

 dition and progress of the library during the past 3'ear : 



The Societ3''s appropriation has been expended wholly for 

 periodicals and binding, and the income of the Stickney Fund has 

 been used, according to the terms of the loan, in the purchase of 

 books exclusively. A list of the books and magazines purchased 

 and presented accompanies this report. 



Although a larger sum could have been used to advantage for the 

 purchase of periodicals, as the income of the Stickney Fund is 

 limited to the purchase of standard works, the amount of the 

 Society's appropriation has been found sufficient, and it is hoped 

 that a similar appropriation will be made for the ensuing 3'ear. We 

 would, however, add tliat there are a number of valuable periodicals 

 which it would be well for the Society to have, and we trust that 

 with returning prosperity the annual appropriations for the library 

 will be increased. 



All of the most useful works on botany and horticulture, 

 published during the year, have been added to the library, and our 

 sets of bound periodicals have, as far as possible, been completed 

 by the purchase of missing volumes. Of late years considerable 

 attention has been turned to the importance of preserving and 

 extending American fore >ts, already almost exterminated in many 

 parts of the country-, and to the care and study of forest trees. It 

 is doubtful if any branch of rural improvement now occupies more 

 generall}' the public mind than the science of forestrj-, or offers in 

 all its branches a better field for careful study and investigation. 

 Your Committee have endeavored to procure as many works as 



