1881. J TRANSACTIONS. 49 



But he might have added with equal truth, Boston is the only 

 city in the world that can boast a horticultural society like the 

 Massachusetts, and it is the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 that has accomplished these results. 



And may not we indulge in some measure of self-gratulation 

 at the success attending the aspirations and the efforts of our 

 own society of Worcester County ? Of the success it has 

 attained in the pomological department in the introduction of 

 the choicest varieties of apples, grapes and pears, the impetus 

 given to the cultivation of tlie small fruits, of the habits of close 

 observation acquired by its members by attendance on its weekly 

 meetings, the excellence and perfection of fruit attained by 

 growers in their generous emulation for its prizes, the practical 

 and scientific knowledge disseminated by its valuable library and 

 by the annual reports of its accomplished Secretary, each one of 

 tliem a rare intellectual treat as well as a contribution to litera- 

 ture — of all these it is not my province to speak. 



If I have construed aright the aims of the founders of this 

 institution, its mission is largely an aesthetic mission, the creation 

 of the beautiful, the adornment of houses and grounds with 

 those forms of beauty in which nature so profusely abounds, 

 which delight the eye and cultivate taste and elevate character, 

 raising man above the dull routine which a cold formal course of 

 an every-day business life has taught him. That this Society has 

 at least in some measure accomplished these results, let the ever- 

 increasing excellence of our weekly floral displays testify. And 

 let the new forms of beauty our city is taking in every direction 

 in lawns, and shrubl>eries, and in both its private and public 

 grounds bear witness. And yet it is hard for many to learn the 

 lesson, that the life is more than tlie meat, that the body is more 

 than the raiment. 



To how many of this generation, still uttering the old lament, 

 " what shall I eat and drink, and wherewithal be clothed ?" does 

 our Lord's rebuke apply with tenfold force — " Behold the fowls 

 of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, yet your Heavenly 

 Father feedeth them." " Consider the lilies of the field, how 

 they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say 

 unto you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed 

 like one of these." 



This Society has been and doubtless always will be — all socie- 

 ties and all institutions, wliether public or private, for the spir- 

 itual and {esthetic development of man, always have been and 

 always will be — confronted by the Judas-like enquiry, prompted 

 by the same meanness of spirit : Why is all this waste ? Why 

 was not this money given to the poor ? Or by the old utilitarian 



