REPORT OF THE SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN FOR 

 TPIE YEAR 1906. 



The activities of the Society during the year have extended some- 

 what beyond the ordinary requirements of the Schedule of Prizes 

 and Exhibitions and the Program of Lectures and Discussions. 



In January the annual meeting and exhibition of the American 

 Carnation Society was held in our halls, followed in March by that 

 of the American Rose Society. Both of these occasions were of 

 noteworthy interest and afforded an opportunity of witnessing the 

 great advance made in the development of the two products of 

 floricultural art in which these societies are especially interested. 



In April a School Garden Institute was held in connection with 

 the work of our Committee on Children's Gardens. It was planned 

 and carried out under the general direction of F. A. Waugh, Pro- 

 fessor of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening at the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College. The idea of this meeting was to 

 give simple, plain suggestions for the practical horticultural opera- 

 tions involved in school gardening. 



For many years previous to 1903 it was the custom of the Society 

 to hold an exhibition in October exclusively devoted to the display 

 of fruits and vegetables. Since that date this has been merged with 

 the Annual September Exhibition until the present year when a 

 return to the former custom was made. The Fruit and Vegetable 

 Exhibition in October of this year proved so successful that it will 

 doubtless be permanently reinstated in future schedules. 



Another feature of the year's work which deserves record at this 

 time was the special exhibitions of the products of children's gardens 

 held in June and September under the auspices of the Committee 

 on Children's Gardens. These we believe were the first of the 

 kind ever held in the history of the Society, and the interest mani- 

 fested in them warrants the retention in our schedule of at least 

 one such exhibition in every year. It is highly encouraging that a 

 new generation of young people is growing up among us whose 

 steps are being led towards horticultural pursuits. In this connec- 



