REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The duties of the Secretary during the past year have been so 

 similar to those described in my last report, as Editor, that any 

 particular mention of them would be but a repetition of that. The 

 chief difference has been the addition of the duties of Recording 

 Secretary and of Secretary of the Executive Committee. As Sec- 

 retary of the Committee on exhibiting Massachusetts Fruits at the 

 Centennial Exposition, much time was consumed in making the 

 preliminary arrangements, and in answering inquiries concerning 

 them, both personally and by letter, as well as in arranging (with 

 the other members of the Committee) the fruit in the Exposition. 



When my last report was made, I hoped and expected that 

 by this time I should be able to report the completion of the 

 History of the Society. The review of all the exhibitions of the 

 Society from the beginning — in some respects the most important 

 part of the history, as describing the chief means by which the 

 Societ}^ has directly promoted the advancement of horticulture — 

 has occupied more time than was anticipated. This portion of the 

 history has been divided into three parts — the first from the founda- 

 tion of the Society in 1829, to the occupation of the first Horticul- 

 tural Hall in 1845 ; the second from that time to the building of the 

 present Hall in 1865 ; and the third from that time onward. The 

 history of the first two of these periods has been completed, but 

 for the reasons before mentioned, and the many calls on my time, 

 my hope of completing the whole has been disappointed. 



ROBERT MANNING, Secretary. 



