148 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



in the flowers, fruits and vegetables exhibited during the past 

 year, with the advance so notable with each recurring season. 



Horticulture is the one pursuit in natural science in which all, 

 without resrard to ajje or condition in life or degree of education 

 and refinement, unite. It presents a common field where every 

 degree of taste and refinement may find an extended opportunity 

 to pursue a course of culture, suited to the ambition and tastes of 

 each and every one. He finds here no obstruction in the pursuit 

 most conducive to his talents, but tending to encourage a course 

 which attracts and delights all, whose enterprise is directed to 

 improve and broaden the horticulture of the county. 



Each successive year shows a marked and gratifying progress 

 in the beautiful belt of towns in our county which surrounds and 

 clasps our city like a "jewelled zone." Ornamented grounds 

 and gardens are yearly encroaching upon uncultivated fields and 

 wooded places ; tasteful dwellings are seen within the plantings 

 and groupings of coniferous and deciduous trees, with their 

 exquisite foliage sheen, which gives them such attractiveness and 

 quiet beauty, whose roofs shelter the manly and gentle virtues 

 that are nurtured in refining homes ; and the intelligence and 

 influence that are generated around these hearthstones are the 

 lineal descendants that contribute to the useful pursuits of life. 

 I feel that we are reaping no scanty harvest for the good seed 

 sown by the men of noble deeds, the founders of this Society. 

 I feel that the Society is especially making itself manifest in this 

 work by its encouragement of those refining rural tastes and the 

 virtues which are its allies, contributing to make people happier 

 and better. 



I feel that this Society is doing well its legitimate work by 

 difi"using and encouraging a wholesome taste for those simple and 

 rural pleasures which add to and prolong the lives and happiness 

 of its members. It teaches our contributors the art of careful 

 selection of fruits in size, color and form, and the same may be 

 said in the selection of vegetables ; and is even more advanced in 

 the cultivation and selection, in the display, of flowers, with the 

 artistic blending of colors. It has taught the community the 

 principal essentials in the cultivation of the soil to ensure the 



