nd out books to all who desire them according to the
regulations, which will be published in an early number of our monthly.

The society is maintaining its card indexes and adding year by year to
the amount of material which they represent. One of these cards indexes
contains the names and titles of all the articles published in the
society's annual reports and is indexed also with the names of the
writers, the index being prepared in this double manner. Another card
index contains the list of books in our library, and the third one,
indexed by subjects, the bulletins on horticulture coming from the
various state experiment stations and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. These indexes are invaluable for their various purposes and
may be used by the membership at their volition.

The society maintained an office at the late state fair, at which a
considerable number of memberships were received and a large number of
members met by the secretary and other officers of the society. We
believe this was an excellent move and should be continued in the
future.

As to the horticultural exhibit at the state fair, while the secretary
has no official connection with it, it should be spoken of as a very
satisfactory exhibition indeed and well handled. The building as a
whole, covering all branches of horticultural work, was a real credit to
the various interests represented and well deserves all the time and
expense lavished upon it.

Probably the most important event of the year with which the secretary
was officially connected was the effort made to secure an appropriation
from the state legislature in session last winter for the construction
of a building for the uses of the Horticultural Society. The building
committee, with which the secretary served, held a number of meetings
with members of the Board of Regents and various committees at the state
legislature, at which a considerable number of our membership besides
those regularly on the committee were in attendance and took part in
appeals in the interest of the building. The secretary's service in this
connection was largely the effort made to enlist the co-operation of the
membership in the way of getting them to write letters or talk
personally with the members of the legislature upon the subject, and an
appeal was sent out through the mails to all of our membership with this
object in view. The response was a most liberal one, far beyond our
expectations. Some of