Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 77 



Art. III. Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Saturday, January 3, 1852. — The stated meeting of the Society was held 

 to-day. 



Mr. Walker, the retiring President, called the meeting to order, and in- 

 ducted the Hon J. S. Cabot, President elect, to the chair, in the following 

 brief and appropriate speech : — 



Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society : It is my duty, 

 and I perform it with great pleasure, to induct your President elect to the 

 honorable position assigned to him by your unanimous vote. 



Known as President Cabot is to us all, as an accomplished, scientific, 

 and energetic cultivator, in the various departments of Horticulture, his ad- 

 ministration cannot fail to be as beneficial to the Society, as I feel assured 

 it will be honorable to himself. 



While the reminiscence of so many favors and honors conferred by you ; 

 so many happy hours spent in your company ; so much information obtain- 

 ed in your service ; and a thousand other obligations under which your 

 kindness has laid me, is so fresh in my memory, I cannot find words to 

 give utterance to my emotions. All I can do, gentlemen, is to tender to 

 you my profound thanks, and to invoke Him who has, as we trust, guided 

 our labors and kept us in the bonds of peace and brotherly love, to bless 

 and prosper you. 



Mr. Cabot then assumed the chair, and addressed the meeting as follows : 



Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society : An election to 

 the office of President of your Society, not more on account of the objects 

 for which your Society was instituted, than of the character of the members 

 composing it, is, in my opinion, an honor highly estimated ; and now, before 

 commencing the performance of those duties appropriately assigned to this 

 Presidency, my own feelings demand, what custom authorizes and propriety 

 seems to require, the expression of my most sincere and most grateful ac- 

 knowledgments, for what I feel to be a most unmerited favor ; and I avail 

 myself, too, of the opportunity now afforded me, to return you my thanks 

 for those proofs of your consideration that I have heretofore received at 

 your hands. 



Conscious of neither possessing high scientific attainments or great prac- 

 tical horticultural skill, and distrustful, too, of my ability faithfully and effi- 

 ciently to discharge them, it is not without reluctance that I assume the 

 responsibilities imposed on me, by an acceptance of the office to which you 

 have thought proper to elect me ; and this reluctance, so naturally incident 

 to this sentiment of distrust, is increased by the reflection that my deficien- 

 cies therein must necessarily be brought into comparison with the qualifi- 

 cations of my immediate predecessor, who for the last three years has, in a 

 manner so acceptable, discharged the duties of your Presidency, and the 

 loss of whose further services to the Society in the same capacity, by his 

 voluntary and to be regretted retirement therefrom, no member can lament 

 more sincerely than myself, his elected successor. 



Indeed, such is this reluctance, that had I been enabled to consult entire- 

 ly and exclusively my own inclinations, my preferencea would have been 



