WOPvCESTER COTTNl Y 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. 1). 1892. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Members of the 



Worcester County Horticultural Society : 



With Samuel Adams Knox, who died on the 25th of August 

 last at the great age of eighty-nine years, passed away, per- 

 haps, the last survivor of those sturdy yeomen whose cordial 

 appreciation and earnest zeal made our Society possible. He 

 and his like throughout the towns of the county, were keenly 

 observant in their pursuit of Terreeculture ; nor contented them- 

 selves with the simple faith that " While earth remains the har- 

 vest shall not cease." In the scant leisure from their exacting 

 occupation, they were apt to investigate cause and effect; to 

 inquire whence, or why, came blight or faihire ; and, when con- 

 fronted by either, to search if haply Nature might not supply 

 remedy for the evils whereof she was so prolific. To such 

 men, the cull and flower of their several communities, the 

 Annual Cattle Show was a welcome Festival, so long as it was 

 maintained. They came to it at each successive recurrence, 

 with the best that they could produce from flock, herd, or 

 orchard ; indifferent to the shght money-award, but justly 

 proud of the pre-eminence declared by the award itself. When 

 the time came for a line of separation to be drawn between the 

 field and the orchard, none were quicker to hail the birth of the 

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