8 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



manner in which my predecessors have carried on the office, I 

 hope that I shall be able to come somewhere near the standard 

 they have set. I shall ask for the cooperation and assistance of 

 all the members of your body, as only in that way can the best 

 results be brought about and the aims sought for by your Society 

 most readily accomplished. 



Founded in 1829, you are now beginning the seventy-eighth 

 year of your history. From small beginnings you have attained 

 to the position of onq of the leading societies in the world. It will 

 be my earnest purpose to aid in continuing this steady progress 

 which you have made in the past. I shall try to see that all branches 

 of horticulture receive fair treatment and a due proportion of the 

 proceeds of the Society. 



Your Society is unif(ue among similar institutions. You have 

 gone ahead maintaining the work for which you were founded, and 

 increasing; vour usefulness each vear, with no evidence of advanc- 

 ing years and no evidence of declining interest. Other institutions 

 have come and gone, but ours has kej^t on with no sign of decay. 

 Your interest in the work is as great today as it has ever been, and 

 it shows upon what sovmd foiuidations the founders of the Society 

 built. This should stimulate us to renewed activity and endeavor 

 to broaden our work, and increase the usefulness of the Society. 



New branches should be taken up as fast as we can get the means 

 and the money to do so. The matter of school gardens which were 

 started about fifteen years ago illustrates the importance of such 

 undertakings. These were so successful that the children went to 

 their homes and started gardens there and prizes have been offered 

 by the Society with good results, as I understand, in this line. The 

 Society should be considered an educational institution. Lectures 

 and exhibitions are now the principal methods of carrying on the 

 work. 



Amongst other things 1 think the control and possible extermina- 

 tion of gypsy and brown-tail moths and other insect pests should 

 be added to our work. What we as a Society can do might be in 

 itself small, but by supplementing and aiding state work we might 

 accomplish a great deal. This also applies to the various pests 

 which attack fruit, vegetables, and flowers. I commend this to 

 the earnest attention of the various committees who have these 

 branches of our Society's work in hand. 



