46 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1879 



The watchful care of our janitor has preserved Horticultural 

 Hall from sensible depreciation. Its advantages as a place 

 of pleasant resort are more widely appreciated, as its facil- 

 ities of access and security of egress become familiar to the 

 community. Yet the floor of the Hall of Pomona is not what 

 it should be, to merit and command that constant use which is 

 for your pecuniary interest ; and a wise forethought would seem 

 to suggest its thorough and perfect renovation. Suffering, in 

 common with others, from the protracted depression in the 

 value of Real Estate ; we may well hope to share in the steady, 

 if slow, improvement which awaits that form of investment. 

 Nevertheless, there are imposed upon us artificial burdens ; — 

 heavily handicapping us in what should be an equal race; — the 

 passive endurance of which, with deference to your better 

 judgment, would appear to be no longer a virtue. 



The General Statutes of the Commonwealth exempt from 

 Taxation "the personal property of literary, benevolent, chari- 

 " table, and scientific institutions incorporated within this Com- 

 "monwealth, and the real estate belonging to such institutions, 

 "occupied by them or their ofificers for the purposes for which 

 "they were incorporated." 



This Worcester County Horticultural Society was in- 

 corporated for the purpose, among others, of "advancing the 

 "science of Horticulture." Yet, ever since the earliest acqui- 

 sition of any tangible estate, the Assessors have doomed it in a 

 sum amounting to one-fourth its annual income. The Getteral 

 Court terms Horticulture "a Science''' : the Assessors deny it! 



The Statutes also exempt from taxation " Houses of religious 

 "worship: * * but portions of such houses appropriated for 

 "purposes other than religious worship, shall be taxed at the 

 "value thereof to the owners of the houses." 



But this Society, when attempting to lease its Hall, is con- 

 fronted by those who would otherwise become tenants, with the 

 notorious fact that they can hire, for a less sum, "portions of 

 "houses of religious worship." 



