1866.] secretary's report 27 



sion to each member would cost more in postage than the probable amount of 

 saving. Members might be required to produce their certificates at the door; 

 but, in that case, there would be sure dissatisfaction among those who had 

 wholly lost them or who had forgotten to bring them. Besides which, it is 

 probable that a majority of the recent certificates would have to be re-issued in 

 a reduced form, as their present size is too great for convenient carriage. That 

 something should be done cannot be doubted. What ? is the problem that 

 puzzles the Committee of Arrangements. 



A material saving to the Society might be realized would members but take 

 the slight trouble, at the close of each Exhibition, to preserve the cards im- 

 printed with their names. This style of card was originally adopted to avoid as 

 much as possible the expense of extra clerical aid. If that object fails of attain- 

 ment, it may well be that the method whereby its accomplishment was sought 

 should cease to meet with favor. 



The session of the American Pomological Congress, which was summoned 

 to meet in St. Louis during the current autumn, has been postponed to the fall 

 of 18G7. By the terms of the call, this Society, in common with others, is in- 

 vited to send delegates to the congress. Each local organization is also 

 requested to furnish a list of those varieties of fruit which have been approved 

 as most worthy of cultivation in that particular vicinage. Should you desire to 

 be represented, your instructions to that effect will doubtless meet with the 

 ready acquiescence of your Trustees. 



The " Transactions of the Society " from 1848 to 1851 inclusive, and also from 

 18G5, have been published under your vote, passed at the annual exhibition in 

 1865. As to the policy and utility of this and the previous issue, nothing re- 

 mains to be added to the able and lucid explanation in the recent annual 

 address of the President. It is greatly to be desired, however, that some more 

 effective and thorough method of distribution be devised. 



Our obligations to the Commissioner of Agriculture during the past year have 

 been onerous as usual. A few bags of winter wheat for seed arrived in 

 December, and two packages of vegetable seeds on the lYth of January Not 

 even a copy of his Annual Report has been vouchsafed by him. In fact, since 

 his grand discovery of the principle of gravitation, the labors of the Commis- 

 sioner appear to have been aimless and of little general utility. It is true that 

 there are some who deny the identity of the Commissioner with the illustrious 

 philosopher who commands the admiration of mankind. But there ha,ve been 

 skeptics in all ages, and the breed is not yet extinct. Nature could not produce 

 two Isaac Newtons ! 



" Nature despairing e'er to make the like," 



Brake suddenly the mould in which 'twas fashioned." 



Were there any lingering doubt of this identity in your minds, it would be 

 simply necessary to remind you, as pomologists, that Isaac Newton is Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture, and that it was by meditation upon the fall of an 

 apple that he evolved his theory of gravitation. 



