1873.] 



REPORT OP SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN. 



59 



will enure to us from the change of location. The Annual Autumnal 

 Exhibition has left this Hall, never again to return. The Library, with 

 immediate and prospective needs, and the Summer Exhibitions, exceed 

 the provision for their accommodation. Your active members, — the men 

 who do 3'our work and keep the Society in abounding activity, — ask only 

 that they shall no longer be " cabined, cribbed, confined " in a space which, 

 however ample in 1850, may, not unreasonably, be found restricted and 

 even cramped, after the lapse of a generation. 



A tabular statement of the Entries for the past official year, together 

 with a similar table showing the number of articles exhibited during the 

 entire period of twelve years that has elapsed since the transfer of the 

 Library to this room, is herewith submitted for your more precise inform- 

 ation : 



COMPAEATIVE STATEMENT. 



Anno Domini. 



1862 

 1868 

 1864 

 1865 

 1866 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 



1431 

 1483 

 1447 

 1997 

 13-15 

 2186 

 1207 

 1597 

 1539 

 2825 

 4479 

 5668 



It will be noted that the entries of Strawberries were largely in ex- 

 cess of those offered in any previous year, with a single exception. The 

 sum of this excess will be all the more evident Avhen it is remembered 

 that in 1871 we were favored with Ihe ripe fruit of that experience which, 

 during the season just past, has been limited to the ruts of a Dummy. 

 More propitious weather for this berry could not have been desired than 

 that of the opening Spring. But as the days lengthened, there came a 

 sudden cessation of the rain-fall, which is so essential to the successful 

 development of the Strcmherry especially, among the Small Fruits. A 

 few cultivators, who had learned by sad experience the wisdom which, 



