60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904. 



what greater benefactions can you have for posterity than 

 these memorials, which shall live and grow, which shall tell 

 of your love of the most beautiful works of nature, kindred 

 and home, when you are slumbering in the grave? Far better 

 these, for the perpetuation of your memory, and the benefit 

 of the advancing millions of coming time, than all the monu- 

 mental shafts and pillars of polished marble that ever graced 

 a hero's tomb! 



Let every town and hamlet in our land have its "Improve- 

 ment Society." Let the planting of trees, shrubs and trailing 

 vines become universal. "Let the rough places bo made 

 smooth, the crooked straight, and the desert to bud and bloom 

 as the rose." The art of landscape gardening is one that 

 should be cultivated by all lovers of nature, for every oppor- 

 tunity is at hand, and kind nature has been so lavish in her 

 gifts to the flora of our country, that by a systematic method 

 we can adorn and embellish our grounds, avenues and streets, 

 our public parks and the old town commons. Every native 

 citizen of our dear old New England should be so public spirited 

 as to devote our annual "Arbor Day" to beautifying the land 

 of their birth, and to adorn their homes, as it is a fitting em- 

 ployment for a patriotic and home-loving people! And I 

 commend most heartily that the day be observed by all the 

 people who love, enjoy and appreciate rural life, by the setting 

 out of trees, shrubs and vines, for the adornment of public 

 grounds and private places, that will in all coming time be 

 the pride and joy of its inhabitants. So all shall be impressed 

 with the beneficial results from a general observation of the 

 day. Indeed we would make it universal, so that the waste 

 tracts might be reclothed with verdure and forest growth, 

 and culture be promoted, as well as the homes planted with 

 flowers, and our waysides made beautiful. For the canopied 

 shade of tlie majestic elms, and the autumnal splendor of the 

 beautiful maples, that constitute the glory of our rural towns, 

 we owe to the generous foresight of our fathers! In country 

 roads and city streets, let us make equally liberal provision 

 for those who shall follow us; so with each passing generation, 



