20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1886. 



sake, can ever be a benefit, — nay even to tliosc who have con- 

 trived to pervert its imposts for their exchisivc, selfish advantage ! 

 But when there is no home market, — because labor is on a strike, 

 or greed has turned the key ; when everything that the soil pro- 

 duces is left to rot, since the energy and resources of a commu- 

 nity were concentrated in on(3 line to the inevitable issue of over- 

 production and consequent glut and impoverishment ; wherein 

 are the Granger or Orchardist to search if perchance they ma}"^ 

 find remuneration for years of patient endurance and self-denial ? 

 Issachar was a most assured Ass and the name of his lineal 

 descendants, in this County of Worcester, is legion. 



The strain that comes upon every article of household use or 

 personal wear in connection with the cultivation of the soil, can- 

 not be overestimated. It is the truest economy for the farmer or 

 orchardist to get the best, — whether of apparel or tools. He, of 

 all men, should have no toleration for shoddy. If the ladder 

 broke, of old, he could trust to homespun to bear him up as it 

 caught upon the jagged wood. But now, upon all foreign goods 

 of superior durability, that he might well wish for their excel- 

 lence and could better afford for their cheapness, there arc levied 

 duties which literally restrict their consumption to the million- 

 aire or spendtlirift. He beholds a fellow-townsman, who prides 

 himself upon his capacity for affairs, and boasts of his Yankee 

 smartness, upon the eve of each annual election crying baby and 

 admitting that he cannot compete with the subjects of "effete 

 monarchies" except he shall be constantly pampered with bounty 

 and special privilege. For himself, — he rises early, toils hard, 

 wrests a frugal subsistence from a reluctant soil, scrimps his 

 family indulgences to save for the annual Tax, and surrenders 

 about a third of his average earnings to uphold a fabric of vicious 

 legislation as unsubstantial as that other creation, — with similar 

 brazen cheek and feet of miry clay. He might sell in the dear- 

 est market and buy in the cheapest. He might ship the culled 

 fruits of his Orchard (and for his interest and good repute he 

 should ship none other), supplying ample cargoes for a restored 

 commercial navy, and bringing back in return freight whatever 

 he needed, if ho found it suited to his purposes. What he might 

 offer abroad, in profusion, could be seen by any one, in sample. 



