42 WOBCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, [18?8. 



the success of the experiment. Nor would this allowance of a some- 

 what wide discretion, preclude the continuance of an arbitrary schedule 

 for specified articles, as now. But it is gratifying, if one can exhibit 

 perfect specimens of an old favorite, like the River apple for instance, 

 for four weeks in succession, to receive something more substantial than 

 an '' honorable mention " in a newspaper report. In what equal, if not 

 greater degree, is not this to be assumed, when a lady takes pains to 

 place upon our tables some pet plant, whose cumbrousness might well 

 discourage, even if its health and beauty suggest the display ! Such 

 things are precisely what we want and invite : should we not make 

 some practical acknowledgement of their appearance ? 



Our Weeldy Exhibitions have been the life of the Society. But the 

 faintest breath quivered in its nostrils when they were instituted. 

 They awakened interest, commanded attention, and invited member- 

 ship. Attracting the first flowers of Spring, they could be made, by 

 proper direction, to fill each successive week throughout the year, with 

 ample suggestiveness to the eye or palate, until their close with the 

 last fruits of winter. Every Exhibition would then have a freshness 

 that can be attained in no other way. And novelty has a charm in 

 itself. Your earnest attention is solicited for the policy, simply out- 

 lined as it is, of relinquishing the op:>ressive and unwieldy Annual 

 Autumnal Exhibitions and applying the energy and means absolutely 

 wasted upon them to magnify the Weeklj' display's. The importance 

 of these, conducted as now, when commenced each year, is found to 

 increase by their own momentum. They grow large enough for con- 

 venient control, by August; yet not too large to be comprehended in 

 detail. What they might beconie, if kept up through the whole year, 

 can only be told after actual experiment. And that experiment, be it 

 explicitly understood, managed liberally and not under the pinch of the 

 gripes. 



Since mine Uncle Toby shared his world with the fly, a multitude 

 without number have imitated him, perforce, without pretending to 

 the Christian grace that inspired his example. The plague of devas- 

 tating insects grows worse with each recurring year. Who can tell 

 when the Tent Caterpillar abode not with us? The very oldest of 

 our Members can just recall the time when the ravages of the Canker 

 Worm and Curculio became sadly evident. The Currant Worm 

 (Abraxis yrossulariata) is already a veteran. The Colorado Potato 

 Beetle {Doryphora decemlineata) has settled down by the shore of the 



