1880.] TRANSACTIONS. 79 



too pennrioiis to support, out of our own pockets, comes nigher 

 to making " bricks without straw" than aay invention of late 

 centuries. God must be hugely pleased with such vicarious 

 generosity ; and find Divine satisfaction in awarding an eternity 

 of bliss to those wlio are so lavish of substance — not their oion ! 

 President Wilder has announced that, if health and life are 

 spared to him, tlie Eighteenth (ISth) Session of the American 

 Pomological Society, A. D. 1881, will be convoked in Boston. 

 In his Annual Report, A. D. 1879, your Secretary, anticipating 

 such a contingency, " suggested for your seasonable considera- 

 tion, whether it might not be courteous and eminently proper 

 for this Society, to ask that one day be set apart for a visit to 

 Worcester." Reflection, and consultation with many of your 

 number, have satisfied me of the wisdom of that advice. True, — 

 we can not show our visitors such princely estates as those of 

 Messrs. Hayes and Hunnewell. But we have land and water 

 scapes that God made, and man, to iiis credit! has not marred. 

 Here is a Hall, all our own, wherein to receive them ; and a 

 Library, comprising the hoarded wisdom of ages, — yet valued 

 more as the priceless means to an inestimable end. And — 

 beyond and before aught else, a membership of men and women, 

 enthusiastic and intelligent ; encouraged by what they have 

 already accomplished, yet regarding the sum of their achieve-, 

 ments as but an incentive to further activity and research. 

 Were it the bearing year, — so called, — it might be possible to 

 prepare a worthy display of Apples. Town shows, the Weekly 

 Exhibitions of our Society, with the miscellaneous agglomeration 

 at the Rink, — each and all confirm a life-long faith that, in the 

 growth of this chiefest of all fruits ; palatable in Summer as the 

 Astrachan or Worcester Spy ; rivalling the Peach, in Autumn, 

 as the Gravenstein; or crowning the joys of Thanksgiving, and 

 " Love's Young Dream," at Sewing-Bee and Sleigh-Ride, with 

 the Habbardston Nonesuch ov Mother; Worcester County has 

 no competitors to dread. And, supplementing the whole, we 

 can proffer a hospitality for which Worcester was always cred- 

 ited : that has never failed, in the history of the town ; and 

 which needs but such an occasion to prove that the hearts and 

 hands of the sons are as warm and open as those of the sires. 



