10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1886. 



Is there any thing whereof it may be said, see this is new ? it hath 

 been already of old time, which was before us. 



^Vierg ^s no remembrance of former i/i^;^^s / neither shall there be 

 any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall 

 come after." 



So that neither shall the uninitiated Horticulturist exalt him- 

 self, — nor the Granger feel abased ; — as they recur to a Report 

 made by Dr. Knfas Woodward thirty-four years ago, wherein 

 that conceded export declared that " the whole number of va- 

 rieties presented to the notice of your committee, was Two Hun- 

 dred and Fifty-Six ; a larger number, we will venture to say, 

 than has ever come under the notice of any former Committee. 

 Of these, one hundred and twenty are well known, valuable va- 

 rieties, hardy, productive, and in every way adapted to our soil 

 and climate," 



Two years later, but still a generation removed from us, 

 George Jaques, — than whom this Society never enrolled a more 

 skilful Pomologist ; reported upon the current exhibition (A. D. 

 1854:): 



"The Exhibition, in the department of apples, — was exceedingly 

 rich and beautifnl. The Committee indeed, are of the unanimous 

 opinion that, not only in the number of varieties* of established repu- 

 tation, but in the size and beauty of the specimens, the display of this 

 great staple fruit was superior to anything of the kind ever before 

 witnessed in this city." * * '* * * * * 



" And, although it is quite probable that, in one or two of the col- 

 lections, there may have been a very few apples not grown within the 

 above-mentioned limits, yet the number of these was so utterly insigni- 

 ficant, that the Committee may rightfully claim the eritire exhibition 

 of apples as the product of Worcester County J" 



It was scarcely an exaggeration — a remark at the late show 

 of the Bay State Society, that about every farm in Worcester 

 County could exhibit its own Seedling Apple. That is as true 

 now as in the olden time when, as wrote Dr. Woodward, "there 

 are growing obscurely, in this County, several apples deserving 

 to be more extensively known. Among such might be classed 

 the Forbush Apple, the Sutton Beauty, and the Harvey, both 

 cultivated by Mr. Joel Knapp, of Sutton, Hunt Russet, Ca- 

 pron's Pleasant, and probably others." 



*The number of plates of apples was 960: contributors, 107. 



