8 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



who otherwise, in our old quarters, would have kept in touch with 

 us. Now that we are comfortably settled in our new quarters 

 everything seems to be going in the right direction. 



This increase in receipts is largely owing to the fine exhibitions 

 which the Society made at the Spring Show in March in the Japanese 

 Garden, and at the Chrysanthemum Show in November; the net 

 receipts from entrance fees to these exhibitions having been the 

 largest in the Society's experience. 



All the exhibitions of the year have been of a high order and have 

 shown an increase in the interest the members have taken in the 

 Society's welfare, which it is hoped and believed v\ill be maintained 

 and even increased in the following season. The Japanese Garden 

 at the Spring Show, designed and constructed by the Messrs. 

 Farquhar, marks an epoch in horticultural exhibitions never before 

 attained in this country. 



The annual meeting at this time occurring so early in the year 

 has made it impossible to give an exact estimate of the receipts and 

 disbursements for the past year. It is estimated, however, that the 

 Society's income has been about $23,000, and the expenditures about 

 823,000. It should be borne in mind that this statement includes 

 the amounts paid for prizes and gratuities for the years 1908 and 

 1909, owing to a change made the present year in the plan of pay- 

 ment of these items. Hereafter the amounts appropriated annually 

 for prizes and gratuities will be paid in the year in which they are 

 made, and charged to the account of that year, and not to the 

 succeeding year as has been the custom previously. Thus the 

 actual result of the year's work is a surplus of about $5600, if the 

 above estimates prove correct, as the prizes in 1908 amounted to 

 $5623. 



The sum received from Mount Auburn is about $600 more than 

 last year. The rental of the hall has fallen off some five or six 

 hundred dollars from last year. This falling off in the rental of the 

 hall is something your Trustees are giving attention to. Several 

 of the causes are largely beyond our control, but we hope to meet 

 the wishes of the hiring public so that this revenue wilNncrease. 



Now that we have made this step forward it is earnestly hoped 

 that we shall continue in the same line, and that the need of careful 

 management and economy of administration will still be kept in 

 mind. 



