8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



done by the Society and the excellent use made of the money 

 granted by the State. 



Our work has been planned with the idea of making it of 

 the greatest practical help to every fruit grower in the State 

 and especially to every member of the Society. The wisdom 

 of this course has been shown in many ways, but especially 

 in the case of the 1905 peach crop; when it became necessary 

 to find markets for a very heavy crop, this help was plainly 

 needed and appreciated. It therefore behooves every member 

 to support t'le organization in all its efforts and reap the ben- 

 efits that come from mutual cooperation. . 



First in importance among the items I am required to 

 report to you on is — 



The Membership. 



The figures stand as follows: February ist, 1905, our 

 total membership was 581. During- the year, 86 new mem- 

 bers have been added, which makes a total number of names 

 on our roll for the year of 667. But unfortunately there have 

 been some losses. Four members have been lost by death, 

 4 have withdrawn, and 85 have not renew^ed their membership 

 for the past two years, and according to our by-laws must be 

 dropped from the roll. This makes our actual number of 

 members February ist, 1906, 575. 



This is practically the same figure as reported one year 

 ago and does not show the increase we have been hoping for. 



Reduced to a plain statement, it means that we have not 

 more than held our own in membership, and that the losses 

 have been as heavy as the gains in new members. 



This is far from gratifying, especially considering all the 

 work and expense that has been put forth to increase the 

 membership. 



While it may be truthfully said that we have a remarkably 

 good membership for the size of our State, yet that does not 

 solve the problem of how to maintain this large membership 

 without undue losses, and at the same time make a steady 

 increase from vear to vear. 



