6 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



make it, by all means, but the point I am trying to make is that it 

 is not desirable to have any rule under which you are obliged to 

 change, whether or no. 



But to go back to your standing committees. Here the natural 

 tendency is to be guided by precedent — habit. And here I think, 

 perhaps, is where a limit of term might be applied. Again, not as 

 an inviolable rule, and in this, as in the President's case, I should 

 advise more than two years, but, perhaps, say four. No one's 

 feelings need be hurt if there were some understanding that 

 changes were to be the rule rather than the exception. 



You do not care to have me give you a mass of statistics show- 

 ing the condition of the Society. Its condition is much the same 

 as last year ; the losses sustained through the hard times tell, of 

 course, to a considerable extent, and the possibility of further 

 losses must be borne in mind. We should always be on the 

 defensive in this respect. 



It is a year since the Executive and Finance committees were 

 asked to try to find you more room. The question, already diflS- 

 cult, has been made more so by the panic, and I hope you will not 

 doubt my word that every effort within reason has been made, and 

 that you will still trust the matter in the same hands. Meanwhile 

 I think it should be our policy to do the best we can with what we 

 have. It cannot be said that any needed repairs have been 

 neglected during the past year. Only while we are talking of the 

 possibility of decided improvement, we do not want to go to any 

 unnecessary expense on the present property. 



Glancing at the Treasurer's membership list, we see that we 

 have now 789 members — six more than a year ago. But looking 

 at our records for twenty years past we see that the number used 

 to be much larger. 



I cannot let this opportunity go by of asking you all to lend a 

 hand in conducting the business of the Society. I refer especially, 

 perhaps I do not need to tell you, to the frequent difficulty in 

 getting a quorum at your business meetings. 



I shall try to express my gratitude to you for your trust in me 

 by my work in this new year. 



The President reported from the Executive Committee a recom- 

 mendation that the Society make the following appropriations for 

 the year 1 894 : 



