18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892. 



average in quantity and quality. 8pa Springs. Average 

 crop. Granville Centre. 85 per cent, of a full crop. Round 

 Hill. Below an average crop." 



From which summary the conclusion appears evident enough, 

 and in no-wise forced, that as there is no royal road to learning, 

 so neither does stubborn loyalty endue provincial orchards with 

 fecundity at all surer or superior to that which is the fortune of 

 our own pugnacious community that, in a lower latitude set up 

 in business for itself — a " State without a king." 



On the 24th of October ulto., so tender a plant as the Canna 

 betrayed but slight trace of the advanced season. Nowhere are 

 there signs of a killing frost. Is it much to be wondered at 

 that men are astonished and ask each other if our climate is 

 undergoing a permanent change ! Dismissing all wild specula- 

 tion about a diversion of the Gulf Stream towards our Atlantic 

 Coast, a fantasy that no observations of our Naval Scientists go 

 to support, are there not some reasons that tend to encourage 

 belief that a modification of temperature is silently going on 

 that tends to soften the usually harsh conditions of a " stern 

 and rock-bound " State ? Nothing can be more unreliable than 

 statements of temperature, in former years, that are sustained 

 only by memory. But when specific facts can be cited, in aid 

 of a reminiscence of seasons of continuous mildness, or the 

 reverse, a solid basis is supplied for our theory. Novv, for a 

 long series of years, this Society was accustomed to hold one, 

 and but one. Exhibition of Flowers, Fruit, &c., &c. Those 

 exhibitions were invariably appointed for a date synchronous 

 with the Annual Cattle-Show ; occurring as near as possible to 

 mid-September. Of course a display of out-door flowers was 

 desirable for the success of those exhibitions ; you may well 

 believe, all-important. Yet scarcely once out of three times 

 were the elements propitious ; and our tables were constrained 

 to forego, as best they might, the color and fragrance that Flora 

 only can contril)ute. Especial pets were mayhap saved from 

 frost by local protection: but protection "pans out" pretty 

 thin wdien apportioned to town or county. There does appear 

 to be warrant for the growing opinion that the Autumn is pro- 



