22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904. 



increase, we have demonstrated that our leading cultivators 

 are striving in honorable competition to bring to perfection 

 the various products of the field and garden, and with the 

 active competition in our exhibitions, aimed at the highest 

 standard of excellence. 



Especially with vegetables and flowers, much of the improve- 

 ment is due to the increased care used by cultivators of the 

 importance in the growing and selection of seeds; by constant 

 care in their selection and saving seeds from the earliest and 

 best developed specimens, an increased product is obtained in 

 size and color, which always proves essential in competition 

 and for sale. 



We note the capacity of plants to extract from the earth 

 and atmosphere each its food and nourishment, and to develop 

 bud, leaf, flowers and fruit in constant succession, unvarying 

 in general type and variety, each true to its kind, yielding at 

 maturity food for man and beast, as well as for the innumerable 

 insect tribes, and with decay in longer or shorter periods of 

 time, supplying food and nourishment to the life and growth 

 of other plants in endless rotation. While horticultural science 

 assures us of the germinal principle of seeds, we are as yet 

 unlearned in the science of cross fertilization or the methods by 

 which the qualities of flowers and fruits are transmitted from 

 one to another through the pollen, by insects and the wind. 



The study and practice of horticulture has a tendency to 

 raise man to a higher level. It quickens and intensifies his 

 senses of sight, taste and smell, and increases his mental scope 

 and his capacity for the enjoyment of life. 



The future of the countrj^ depends upon the proper education 

 of the children, and if this Society can do anything to get 

 the children interested in the cultivation of flowers or fruits, 

 it should do so. 



There are many difficulties in the way when we attempt a 

 solution of horticultural teaching of school children, the use 

 of their hands in the cultivation of plants and an interest in 

 the pursuit. The Society should look into this question care- 

 fully and if a practical course can be devised to elevate the 



