IV PREFACE. 



ed editor, and prepared the history to the close of the year 

 1862. President Breck stated in his valedictory address in 

 January, 1863, that the work would require revision, and 

 there the subject rested for some years. 



In 1871, it was placed in the hands of a new committee, 

 consisting of President William C. Strong, Marshall P. 

 Wilder, Charles M. Hovey, Francis Parkman, Charles O. 

 Whitmore, and E. W. Buswell, who employed the present 

 secretary of the Society to revise and complete the work. 

 Under their direction and that of the Standing Committee 

 on Publication and Discussion, it has been brought down to 

 include the first half century of the Society's existence. 



The sources from which the materials of the History have 

 been derived besides the Records and Transactions of the 

 Society are mainly the New England Farmer, the Magazine 

 of Horticulture, and the Horticulturist. Other sources of 

 information are acknowledged in notes, especially in the in- 

 troductory chapter. This, it is believed, comprises a fuller 

 account of the commencement and progress of horticulture 

 throughout our country than can be found elsewhere, and 

 will be of general interest. 



The Committee have added to the work a portrait of Gen. 

 Dearborn, to whom as its first president the Society is most 

 indebted for that prestige which it has ever retained under 

 his successors, and which has secured for it a foremost place 

 among similar institutions. The volume is also enriched 

 with views of the halls erected by the Society. The appen- 

 dix contains, besides the matters referred to in the body of the 

 work, a list of all the officers and members of the Society 

 from its foundation. The editor, Robert Manning, has 

 brought to the work the utmost faithfulness and a constant 

 endeavor to secure strict accuracy. The investigation of 



