90 THE CONNECTICUT P0M0L0GICAL SOCIETY. 



premises. Around all that I can get there is grass, there will 

 be grass growing." He was hunting for a house without a. 

 spear of vegetation about it. He came out of his early train- 

 ing with that prejudice. 



Now I shall end as I began by saying that you are a 

 very good looking lot of people, and I trust that you will have 

 a most enjoyable time during the rest of the evening. 

 (Applause). 



The Toastmaster : We have a considerable number of 

 our friends here to-night whom we want to hear from, and 

 we must all be very brief. I hope every man, woman and child 

 will feel that they may be called upon to say a single word, 

 and then they can work out of it if they want to. I am 

 going to try to save some of you a little trouble by saying 

 some of the things which I presume may be said in the be- 

 ginning, or which those who may be called upon may be 

 tempted to say. I propose to say a few of those things be- 

 fore they really begin. Then the others will not have to- 

 repeat them. I will begin by saying that this is quite unex- 

 pected that I have no notes whatever, and really have nothing 

 to say, that it is a great pleasure to be here, that this has been 

 a most delightful banquet, that I never had the pleasure of 

 spending such a delightful evening with such a delightful 

 company and of listening to the delightful Mr. So-and-So and 

 Mr. So-and-So. (Laughter). I feel that any feeble remarks 

 of my own would be like casting pearls before swine. 

 (Laughter). That is what I heard not more than two years 

 ago, at an agricultural meeting, too. I think I know just 

 how that man felt. 



Now we have a number of visiting friends from whom 

 we would like to hear, and it is one of the great pleasures of 

 this meeting that our friends from the other states have come 

 here to assist us. Connecticut is called the "land of the 

 wooden nutmeg," but I think that we have good reason to 

 say that Massachusetts is the land of the gypsy moth. We 

 have with us the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 



