140 FOURTH NATIONAL FLOWER SHOW 
certificates of merit for meritorious new varieties of Roses; also to offer prizes of money, cups, 
etc., for excellence of exhibits made at shows held by the Society. 
It is also proposed that the Societj' disseminate to its members the latest information 
pertaining to the Rose, recommending new varieties of undoubted merit, best methods of 
culture, how to fight insect and fungoid pests, the proper use of manures, and other informa- 
tion from the pens of leading experts that, especially to amateurs, will be worth many times 
the cost of membership. 
Since then the Society has grown and prospered, until today we have a 
membership comprising most of the leaders in rose-growing, both in a pro- 
fessional and an amateur way. 
To help each member, whether professional or amateur, is the aim of the 
Society. We desire to disseminate useful literature, and in every way to pro- 
mote rose-groTving, either under glass or in the open. We seek to provide rose 
information from the pens of the best wTiters in the country — information that 
will cover every phase of the subject. 
We cherish the hope that we can eventually gi\-e our members help of at 
least as much real value as that supplied in England by the National Rose 
Society, which sends out literature that is invaluable to its members. With this 
object in view, we have this year undertaken to publish the annual Bulletin 
with a much broader scope than heretofore, and, of course, at more cost. It is 
planned to make it a reference book of value, as well as to present interesting 
rose reading; to have it, in truth, The American Rose Armual. 
At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Rose Society 
held in Philadelphia during the summer of 19 15, this matter of improving our 
publications was discussed with Mr. J. Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, Pa., 
who kindly consented to help us, in agreeing for three years to act without com- 
pensation as editor of this Annual. In thus placing the matter in his hands, 
we have had the satisfaction of believing that he would carry the work through 
with ability, giving the commercial and amateur lovers of roses a book of 
interest. 
This first American Rose Annual, succeeding the Annual Bulletins which 
have been so capably handled by our indefatigable Secretary, Mr. Benjamin 
Hammond, is therefore offered as an earnest of the intentions of the American 
Rose Society. 
For a number of years the society has worked mostly on commercial lines, 
and as such it has probably heretofore appealed more strongly to the com- 
mercial man than to the amateur. The commercial rose industry of this 
country is a large industry, and it serves to set most exacting standards of 
rose attainment. Yet the amateur has not been lost sight of. He is a more 
important factor of rose progress each year. Not only does he benefit and 
inspire the commercial man, but he is popularizing the rose as no other means 
can or will. 
It is to the amateur I feel we must look, as the years go by, to increase the 
