58 WORCESTER COUNTr HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



Storm of political passion and prejudice, to estimate and duly 

 prize the rugged tenacity and sturdy uprightness of — possibly 

 the Last of the Puritans. 



" After life's fitful fever, — he sleeps well." 



The development of the Strawberry market, throughout the 

 City and County of Worcester, has continued with, if possible, 

 accelerated momentum. Whether as much has been gained in 

 the production of better varieties, — or in widening and deepening 

 the knowledge of methods of improved culture, — may be 

 doubted, — loith emphasis. This latter statement can be modi- 

 fied, perhaps, if demonstration shall crown audacious experi- 

 ment; and success result from the problem now on trial at the 

 base of Newton Hill. But the Goddards did succeed along the 

 newer Holden road ; and there should be no insuperable obstacle 

 to the triumph of a similar enterprise, on a far larger scale, when 

 undertaken by the " Sovereign of Industry.'' 



Yet, with reference to varieties, what real advance has been 

 made % The Charles Doimiing is even more generally approved : 

 but it has been known, and commended, for years. Its wider 

 acceptance only goes to show that the common vision is clearer, — 

 the public appreciation more acute, — than in the days when the 

 Wilson was esteemed good enough for that pet and pride of 

 Massachusetts Ornithology, the Turdus 7)%igratorius. We have 

 now, it is true, an endless list of recent seedlings ; tested by our 

 vigilant members who would have the most prolific; without 

 objection to quality, if combined with fecundity ; and who, to 

 that end, feel obliged to " prove all things." Might they like- 

 wise — " hold fast to that which is good " ! 



Your Secretary sometimes gets discouraged as a preacher of 

 the true evangel. He remembers, however, that, in days of 

 yore, he once or twice essayed the political conversion of the 

 sturdy Free-Soil dogmatists of Worcester, — City and County, — 

 to the use of the pure milk of grade-Democracy. What then if 

 he now fails to persuade you that everything which is novel in 

 Garden or Orchard ; — and proclaimed to be the one thing need- 

 ful, by those who get gain from the blowing of rams' horns ; is 

 not inevitably, nor necessarily, an improvement upon the old? 



