132 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



valuable services rendered to the Society and to the 

 cause of horticulture ; which in the aggregate have 

 amounted to a considerable sum. 



Apart from the large payments for prizes and gratui- 

 ties, the exhibitions held by the Society have, on the 

 whole, not been a source of profit, but the reverse. In 

 the early days of the Society, when the labor of arran- 

 ging and decorating for the annual exhibition could 

 be performed by the members of the Committee of Ar- 

 rangements, with the assistance of the porter in charge 

 of the hall, a profit could be counted on, which formed 

 an important item in the revenue of the Society ; but, 

 since the exhibitions have grown more extensive, the 

 expenses have frequently exceeded the receipts, the 

 greatest deficit having been in 1857, when the former 

 were $2,382.68, and the latter $1,372.50, leaving a 

 deficiency of $1,010.18. The largest excess of receipts 

 over expenses was in 1865, at the first annual exhibition 

 in the present hall, the receipts having been $1,822, 

 and the expenses $1,371.76, leaving a profit of $450.24. 

 The expenses of the annual and semi-annual exhibitions 

 have in the aggregate exceeded the receipts by more 

 than $8,000. 



Until the opening of the hall in School Street, admis- 

 sion to the weekly exhibitions was always free ; but at 

 that time a small admission fee was required, the 

 receipts from this source amounting during the season 

 to $527.13. The same course was continued, but with 

 greatly diminished receipts, for several years afterwards, 

 and occasionally since. The whole amount received at 

 the weekly exhibitions was probably about $1,500, a 

 very small part of the cost at which they have been 

 sustained. Doubtless a very different result would 



