1872.] REPORT OF SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN. 55 



sufficient to attract a continually increasing attendance. It is believed 

 that the objects of the Society can in no way be better promoted than liy 

 fostering, to every reasonable extent, these primary scliools of Horti- 

 cultural instruction. The sums devoted to their use should be steadily, 

 if gradually, augmented; for although it would not be possible to fully re- 

 munerate contributors for their time and trouble, it is at least within our 

 ability, as it should be our fixed purpose, to ensure them against positive 

 loss No expenditure of the funds that are entrusted to us can be wiser 

 or more legitimate. 



The character and magnitude of our Exhibitions have been seriously 

 affected bj^ recent climatic peculiarities. The fierce and unrelenting 

 Drought of 1870, followed by one almost as parching, if not so con- 

 tinuous, in J 871, was sternly supplemented by the late extreme of an 

 almost Arctic Winter. Deprived for so long of moisture, and almost sap- 

 less, the hardiest shrubs and trees, which did not absolutely succumb to 

 the cutting gales and intense frost of March, were yet robbed of height^ 

 mass and symmetry. If some with a deeper tap-root survived the exces- 

 sive drain upon their vital energies, it was almost invariably at the expense 

 of that majestic altitude which it had required years of developement to 

 attain. Fruit-trees escaped by reason of the higher cultivation bestowed 

 upon them. Manure, and mulching, and occasional tillage, did much to 

 counteract the baneful tendencies of an uninterrupted aridity. The 

 lowlier plants fared worse. With its thread-like roots spread out upon 

 the surface, or at the utmost, penetrating the earth but a few inches, the 

 Strawberry M'as signally exposed to every destructive influence. Greedy 

 of water, it went a- thirst for months. Eequiring protection from the 

 alternations of frost and thaw, it was exposed, unprotected by its natural 

 covering of snow, save when wrapped in the fatal eml trace of ice and 

 sleet, so that, at length, after '' the flowers appear on the earth; the time 

 " of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in 

 " our land;" the grower, in too many instances, found that his prospect of 

 swelling crown and prolific bud has vanished in a bleak monotony of 

 empty hills and frozen plants. Varieties were served so nearly alike that 

 it will be idle for any one to claim exemption from the common mortality 

 for his exceptionally-favored lot. Wilson and Jucunda; Triomphe and 

 Charles Downing; theii most zealous champions must concede their 

 several and absolute need of protection. And the berry is worth that 

 trouble and more. Costly as its cultivation is, however, and irksome as 

 is the toil of gathering the crop, a scanty yield has been attended with 

 one compensation. The grower has obtained a price per quart more 

 closely approximating remuneration. Still, it is very questionable if, in 

 the average of a series of vears, an accurate balance-sheet would disclose 



