REPORT 



COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY 



FOR THE YEAR 1896. 



Cultivators continue to send here for exhibition more illustra- 

 tions of their skill than can be satisfactorily shown in our limited 

 space ; and, in the same way, books and pamphlets continue to 

 •find their way to the library regardless of the lack of accommo- 

 dations they find here ; but the increase of exhibits and of books 

 is not a matter to be deprecated — still less to be curtailed. The 

 remedy in each case is the same, and we should no more cease to 

 acquire books and pamphlets than we should cease to send plants, 

 flowers, fruits, and vegetables here to delight and instruct the 

 crowds that throng our halls on all special occasions. The exhi- 

 bitions, the discussions, and the library are three agencies which 

 have taken and will continue to take an equal share in sustaining 

 and extending the renown of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society. 



As usual there is but little to say about this department. The 

 work here continues to fully occupy the Librarian and those who 

 are associated with him. The accessions, which will be enumer- 

 ated as a supplement to the report of the Librarian, have been 

 of the usual number and importance, and those which have been 

 purchased from the income of the Stickney Fund and from the 

 Society's appropriation have exhausted the entire amount as 

 usual. The Card Catalogue of plates will proceed henceforward 

 on a different plan. Mrs. Andrews has retired from her labors, 

 having written cards for nearly every plate which is not in 

 Pritzel's Index, and it is thought that all the cards made neces- 



