REPORT 



OF THE 



Committee on Window Gardening, 



FOR THE YEAR 1888. 



By HENRIETTA L. T. WOLCOTT, Chairman. 



As Chairman of the Committee on Window Gardening, it 

 becomes my dut}^ to report progress for the year 1888. 



The task is by no means an easy one — difficulties confront me 

 before I commence. To chronicle the improvements in the 

 culture of roses — marvellous as they have been — in any given 

 number of years, or those in any other special flower, is not 

 beyond the power of the average florist. To report the marked 

 improvement in the most excellent and toothsome cabbage, to 

 specify its size, its good qualities in the line of early maturity, 

 keeping well for a season, etc., is not a burdensome task. Com- 

 paring the present with the past, and rejoicing in all such benefits 

 to the producer and consumer, would not tax the ability of any 

 of us. 



But to report on the growth of an idea, and to present a tabu- 

 lated list of the evidences of improvement in the minds of individ- 

 uals becomes almost an impossibility, especially when that ideal 

 report is to be given to a practical people — and the members of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society are, emphatically, a prac- 

 tical people. 



If we begin with the old, old, "once upon a time," we must 

 admit that the suggestion that this Society should encourage the 

 cultivation of plants, in windows, by amateurs, came from philan- 

 thropic citizens, accompanied by the very practical offer of money 

 to defray expenses. 



