§2 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY, 



For the Year ending Dec. 31, 1861. 

 BY ED\^rARD S. HAND, JR., CHAIRMAN. 



The past year, though unfavorable for horticulture, has shown an increasing 

 interest in the Library of the Society. The reading room has been in constant 

 use, and the members have freely exercised their privilege of taking books 

 from the Library. 



Meetings of the Committee have been regularly held at the Library Room 

 on the second Wednesday of each month, in which much interest has been 

 taken by the members of the Committee, and much business conducive to the 

 prosperity and increase of the Library been transacted. Early in January the 

 annual examination of the Library showed no discouraging feature, the books 

 being all in good condition, with the exception of a few which needed re- 

 binding. 



The increase of books has only been limited by the expenditure of the ap- 

 propriation, which has all been devoted to the purchase of new books or to 

 completing imperfect sets. The money has been judiciously expended, and 

 by availing ourselves of favorable opportunities for purchasing, the Society is 

 now in possession of valuable works worth far more than the cost. 



The Committee regret to say, there seems to be, with many members of the 

 Society, a want of appreciation of the value of a large and well selected hor- 

 ticultural library. Many grudge the money appropriated for this purpose, los- 

 ing sight of the fact, now well established, that one of the best investments 

 which can be made is in valuable and well-selected books. The thousands of 

 dollars annually expended in prizes for fruits, flowers and vegetables, are pro- 

 ductive of far less real benefit to the members of the Society than the five 

 hundred dollars annually devoted to the increase of the Library. 



The fund available for the purchase of books has, during the past two years, 

 been much reduced by the large bills for binding, which have of necessity 

 been incurred. When your Committee, some two years since, took charge of 

 the Library they found matters in anything but a promising condition ; for six- 

 teen years there had been few, if any, meetings of the Library Committee ; 

 there was no oversight of the Library save that bestowed by the faithful libra- 

 rian, to whose care alone the Society owes the preservation of the many valu- 

 able books with which the generosity and forethought of former members had 

 endowed it. The Library was in fact a dead thing; an appropriation of about 

 one hundred dollars was annually made, but it was never devoted to the in- 

 crease of the Library, and but few books were added, and those mostly the 

 gradual increase caused by binding up magazines. Your Committee find that 

 in former days some foreign horticultural periodicals were taken by the Society, 



