54 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICCLTURAL SOCIETY. [1878. 



comprehend whose portrait, in sequence, your Secretary advises you to 

 procure. And to procure now, — in his lifetime — that he may know 

 that we were not churlishly ungrateful for a liberality, the greatness of 

 whose sum might cnly be measured by the graceful and unobtrusive 

 manner of its manifestation. 



This Keport would be sadly imperfect were it void of allusion to the 

 recent death of Benjamin Franklin Thomas, followed so soon by 

 that of IIknry Chapin. In the catholicity of their tastes there was 

 room for a rare enjoyment of Horticulture. In the manysidedness of 

 their characters, whereof, in either, the Poet's phrase is thoroughly 

 descriptive .• 



"totus, teres, atque rotundus." 

 The love of Nature was a transcendant passion. In early manhood, 

 when ampler leisure permitted ; as in their maturer years, after the 

 cares of an engrossing profession left little time for recreation ; they 

 could always be found ready and willing to prepare a Report or deliver 

 an address in your service. Nor was their zeal lacking in discretion ; 

 for few knew better whereof they discoursed. But two or three years 

 have elapsed since the St. Michel pears of Judge Chapin were denied a 

 premium, because of their extreme size ; the Committee doubting their 

 genuineness because they were so large ! And, although the Beurre 

 Bosc of Judge Thomas were never challenged, it was not because they 

 lacked magnitude, or any essential to perfection, as his competitors had 

 occasion to admit. Neither were these tastes out-lived ; refined, if also 

 in the best sense of the old Saxon idiom, homely. As private citizens, 

 or Officers of State, they were not disdainful of the Annual Cattle 

 S/ioiv, or the Horticultural Exhibition that originated later. 

 The " Report on Fruits," of our own Society, discloses that "a fine 

 " basket of St. Michel Pears was brought to the Fair by B. F. Thomas, 

 Esq.," in A. D. 1841, And it is within the knowledge of j^our Secre- 

 tary that his contributions were continuous and uninterrupted, until 

 his departure from Worcester. At the very recent Fair of the A^ew 

 England Agricultural Society a lot of Fruit from Henry Chapin attract- 

 ed especial notice, not so much from its quality, which was unimpeach- 

 able, as from the general surprise that one, in his condition of sore 

 distress, should have even thought or cared to send it in. 



Our Society can ill afford their loss. Shall their places remain va- 

 cant? Who will step forward to fill thorn ? 



