224 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



possible, ill all languages, bearing on this subject, and our library 

 alread}^ possesses the most important collection of such works in 

 this country. There are many books of this class too rare and 

 valuable for private libraries, and your Committee have procured 

 such works when possible, placing them within the reach of man}' 

 who could not obtain them in any other way. 



It is very desirable that the Societ3''s regulation providing that a 

 bulletin shall be posted in the Library Room, giving the titles of 

 the new books as the}' are added, should be complied with, and it is 

 hoped that within a few years, the Society will be able to publish a 

 new Catalogue, or a supplement to the present one. 



The want of additional shelf room is more seriously felt each 

 year, and it will soon become an absolute necessity for the Society 

 to consider the extension of the library accommodations. 



In this connection, it will be well to consider the necessity of 

 carefully preserving, in such a manner as to render them at all 

 times accessible to the members of the Society, the numerous 

 valuable pamphlets, and other occasional publications on rural 

 matters which could be easily procured by gift or purchase, and 

 which, if properly cared for, would form one of the most valuable 

 departments of the library. Such publications your Committee 

 have not endeavored to procure, as no provision for their care has 

 ever been made, it having been the custom of those directly in 

 charge of the library to dispose of such pamj)hlets and journals as 

 seemed of little value to them, to other societies, on the plea of 

 want of accommodation. It is veiy desirable that eveiy journal 

 relating to horticulture or agriculture, and every pamphlet and 

 catalogue sent to the Societ3^ should be carefully preserved and 

 bound, and thus made accessible for future examination and study. 



Your Committee also consider it their duty to direct the atten- 

 tion of the Society to the uses for which their Library Rooms are 

 employed ; uses which render them unfit places for quiet reading or 

 study. "While the propriety of leasing the Societ3''s halls is not 

 disputed, it is submitted that the rooms containing one of the most 

 valuable horticultural and botanical libraries in the world, should 

 not be turned into a general headquarters for the managers of the 

 miscellaneous exhibitions which visit Boston, and who, by their 

 loud conversation and passing to and fro, cause a confusion which 

 is not in harmou}^ with the objects of the Society, and which 

 especially interferes with the legitimate uses of the library. 



