324 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gotten that its chief use is as a reference and not as a circulating 

 library. As there seems to be continual danger of misconception 

 on this point, I take the liberty to repeat what was said on it in a 

 report some years ago : " Statistics of circulation are out of the 

 argument as regards a library whose maintenance ensures the pres- 

 ervation of the best fruits of advanced research, in a repository 

 accessible to scholars and students. As has been well said by 

 competent judges, treating of a ' library for advanced students, or 

 for persons making researches of a learned nature,' — ' the benefit 

 reaped from it by the community cannot be reckoned by any 

 method of statistics. It is by means of such collections as this 

 that some of the greatest benefactors of the public are enabled 

 to prosecute their researches and do their work.' " 



The book of Library Wants, for the reception of the names 

 of such books as may be desired by members, which has been kept 

 at the Librarian's desk for nearly twenty years, is still open for 

 the expression of such desires. I regret that it has not received 

 more entries, and hope that hereafter it may be more freely used. 



A count of the books, etc., in the Library was made during the 

 summer, which resulted as follows : Books, 9,875 ; Pamphlets, 

 6,781 ; Nursery and Seed Catalogues, 7,273. 



I wish here to expi-ess my grateful sense of the appreciation by 

 the Library Committee of the difficulties surrounding the work on 

 the Library, and the heartiness Asdth which the Librarian and his 

 assistants have been supported in the discharge of their duties. 



Egbert Manning, 



Librarla7i. 



