6 WOUCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892. 



new Horticultural Society, and to assist it firmly to its feet, 

 than those Deacons or Selectmen, foremost in their respective 

 townships and therefore best fitted to frame an organization 

 designed to embrace the whole county. They entered into the 

 competition of the day with a hearty zest that did not fail them 

 at the Annual Ball in the evening ; and they remained to attend 

 the next night, with their families, the customary social recep- 

 tion by the Governor-President. It was, all in all, a great 

 County Festival ; held at its proper time, and therefore a Har- 

 vest Home. In these latter-days of perversion and degeneracy, 

 when lust for gain overrules, and honorable rivalry is degraded 

 to the ignoble level of a mercenary race, the last of our found- 

 ers may well quit the earth which they toiled to improve and 

 where they so nobly fulfilled their appointed task. 



The reduction in frequency of our Exhibitions, and the 

 attempt to lessen their exaction of labor and time ; while simul- 

 taneously augmenting their attractiveness ; may be claimed to 

 have worked fairly well. It is yet too early, after the trial of 

 a single year, to determine whether the experiment is a proved 

 success. All such changes are prompted by the best motives ; 

 should be judged without consideration of our selfish individual 

 interests ; and, after all, can only be tested with assured cer- 

 tainty, by repetition and lapse of time. It is no demonstration 

 of failure or success that one flower or another, this and that 

 Summer or Autumn fruit, does not happen to be in season 

 when the competition of a particular species or variety was in- 

 vited. "Man proposes, but God disposes!" is a proverb of 

 Olden English Chronicle. Our schedule may be framed with 

 every precaution that foresight or experience shall dictate ; yet 



" There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

 " Eough-hew them how we will." 



Suppose that our Strawberries or Plums do not " connect" 

 with the date appointed for their trial ! Some private pocket is 

 doubtless the poorer; but wherein is the loss to Horticulture, 

 as such, unless you are ready to assert that the award of money 

 premiums is the Alpha and Omega of so much of Horticulture 



