PRESIDENT BRECk's ADDRESS. 119 



PRESIDENT BRECK'S ADDRESS. 



The first regular meeting of the Society for the year 18G0 was held on 

 Saturday, January 7, when the President, Joseph Breck, Esq., delivered the 

 following Address : — 



Gentlemen: 



Another year of our existence as a Horticultural Society has passed, and 

 we enter the threshold of a new year with ardent hopes and expectations 

 that the season before us may prove more auspicious than the one which 

 has now closed. 



The variety in our climate is so great, with its excessive heats, excessive 

 colds, and long continued droughts — with changes so sudden and unplea- 

 sant, together with our hard soil — that we are often disposed to feel that we 

 are most unpropitiously situated for the most perfect results of our horticul- 

 tural enterprises and labors. 



This in some measure is true ; but it is not always in the most congenial 

 climates and on the most fertile soils where the results of horticultural pur- 

 suits are the most satisfactory. 



If we do live in a hard climate, among rocks and barren soils, and expe- 

 rience the inconvenience of sadden chang-es, and have so much to contend 

 with to try our patience, the very hardness of the climate, with the exertion 

 necessary to cultivate the soil, gives us such vigor of body and mind that 

 we have more courage and ability to meet the difficulties we have to en- 

 counter, than those who live in a more congenial climate and possess more 

 fertile soils. 



The success of our past operations, in compari-on with those of other 

 sections of the country, proves this — so that we may with truth say, '' the 

 lines are fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly heritage." 



The past year has been remarkable for the number of disastrous changes 

 and fluctuations of weather that repeatedly threatened to destroy the hopes 

 of the horticulturist. 



The winter was not one of extreme severity, with the exception of two 

 or three weeks, but generally open, mild, and pleasant. March, which is 

 usually very rough and variable, seemed to have skipped over into April. 

 From the swelling of the buds and other indications, we expected an early 

 spring. At that time there were no indications of injury to evergreens, 

 and other trees and plants, that after-vards appeared. March did not go out 

 with the gentleness of the lamb, as we often hear it remarked, but with se- 

 vere, piercing, cold winds from the Northwest, or with the roughness of the 

 lion. These very cold, dry and uncomfortable winds prevailed during the 

 most of April, and vegetation made but little progress. It really seemed 

 as if April had unceremoniously crowded March out of his place, impa- 

 tiently taking the precedence; but March not being disposed to be blotted 

 out of the calendar, did his best to make himself known and felt in April, 

 however out of season it might seem. 



