96 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Larger appropriations having been made for fruits and vegetables for 

 the coming year, we may reasonably expect to see even more satisfac- 

 tory results in the futiire. 



The Library has received large and valuable additions the past year, 

 more than have been added in a single year before, at a cost of Sl,033. 



The Society have been able to do this, through the generosity of our 

 esteemed friend, Josiah Stickney, Esq., who has placed the income of 

 S12,000 at our disposal, of which seven hundred dollars is to be yearly 

 devoted to making additions to our Library. Mr. Stickney deserves 

 and will receive our thanks, as well as the thanks of hundreds and 

 thousands that are yet to follow us, as members of this Society. 



By using the principal of the fund placed at our disposal we have, 

 with income from other sources, been able, within the past year, to 

 entirel}^ extinguish a floating debt of eleven thousand dollars, and pay 

 six thousand dollars on the mortgage that exists upon our property. 

 It is possible that a still farther reduction of this debt may soon be 

 made. 



This is a wise arrangement, and we again express the hope that a 

 sum may be set aside each year to reduce this indebtedness. The 

 report of our faithful Superintendent and Treasurer will show that the 

 finances of the Society are entirely satisfactory, thanks to his untiring 

 labors and the hearty co operation of the able Committee on Finance. 



Our membership has steadily increased from the ranks of those who 

 love the noble pursuit of horticulture. Eighteen life and twenty-two 

 subscription members have been added the past year. We heartily 

 welcome them to the privileges of membership, and hope to receive 

 contributions from them for our tables, for they should remember that 

 by their fruits they should be known. 



To all the officers with whom I have been associated the past year I 

 return my thanks, for their kindness and forbearance; to the various 

 committees for their prompt and faithful discharge of every duty, and 

 to all the members who have so kindly co-operated to make our Society 

 what it is. 



Let us not rest upon our laurels, but if we have done well in the past, 

 let us do even better in the future, for there is a wide field open before 

 us, where all may enter and pluck the rarest flowers and the richest 

 fruits to their hearts' content, make the waste places of the earth to 

 bud and bloom, the orchards to bend beneath their weight of golden 

 fruit as rich and luscious as Eden ever saw. 



Let us then press on with renewed courage, cultivate peace and har- 

 mony within our ranks, and bind more closely the ties of friendship and 

 brotherly love. 



In closing, I wish you all a Ilapi^y New Year. 



