114 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The several Committees are deserving of high praise for the very prompt 

 and efficient manner in which they have performed their respective duties. 



Gentlemen, I most heartily congratulate you upon the general prosperity 

 of this Society, and most especially on the termination of the differences 

 existing between us and the Mount Auburn Corporation. That Company 

 magnanimously requested a committee of conference to be appointed by us, 

 to confer with one selected by them. The result is the adoption of an ex- 

 tended and well defined contract, to last as long as that Corporation exists. 

 This amicable settlement I regard as the most important ever made by us, 

 except the one by which this Society surrendered to them those lovely 

 grounds in the contract of 1835. This entire negotiation has been entered 

 into and carried to successful completion in a spirit of moderation and re- 

 ciprocal kindness, which, I hope, is an earnest of its continuance to the 

 end of time. 



Our Society is out of debt, and in the possession of a very valuable real 

 estate as well as personal property. We enter upon the new year with the 

 flattering prospect of an increasing revenue. 



The gentleman just elected as your President joined you as a member 

 the day your act of incorporation was dated ; since that time he has been 

 engaged in horticultural pursuits and rural affairs, as cultivator, editor and 

 publisher. Few men have done more for our cause than he has been doing 

 for nearly a third of a century. With the evidences of his taste and devo- 

 tion to his calling, we cannot doubt his success in the official capacity he 

 is now to enter upon. 



Gentlemen, I now tender you my heartfelt thanks for the many kind evi- 

 dences of attention and approbation which you have extended towards me. 

 They will not be forgotten while I live. I am conscious of having dis- 

 charged the duties of the office I am vacating to the best of my abilities, 

 trusting some progress has been made during that brief period. 



I now surrender the chair to my successor, with all its honors and respon- 

 sibilities, most cordially recommending him to your kind care and consider- 

 ation, and extending to each of my fellow members a happy New Year. 



ADDRESS OF MR. BRECK. 



Gentlemen : — 



Our worthy and highly esteemed President, who now retires from the 

 post of honor, which he has occupied the past year with so much credit to 

 the Society and honor to himself, parts from us in his official capacity, with 

 the cordial good wishes and the unanimous approbation, I think I may 

 safely say, of every individual member of this Society. The only thing 

 which causes any regret, was his refusal to permit us to elect him to the 

 same post for another year. 



I am not a little embarrassed by the kind and flattering manner in which 

 he has been pleased to allude to my long connection with this Society, the 

 nterest I have always manifested in rural and horticultural pursuits, and 

 to the services I have rendered to the Society and to the public, for I fear 



