14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETr. [1896. 



A Society may hold a show of its especial products, for its 

 own satisfaction ; and to determine the comparativ^e excellence 

 of specimens of flower or fruit, displayed upon its tables, with- 

 out derogation from its dignity or depreciating its legitimate 

 aims. But when it descends to charge a fee for admission, 

 where formerly its doors were thrown wide open ; or becomes a 

 suppliant for the bounty of cup or purse ; it can no longer pre- 

 tend to be studious of science from pure love of its aims and 

 ends, nor claim in face of the General Court, as it could afore- 

 time, to be guided solely by a desire to promote the Practice of 

 Horticulture when the attainment of Premiums is so clearly its 

 object ! Gate-money yields but inadequate nourishment for the 

 sustenance of a corporation like this, wherefor only honorable 

 emulation should suffice. But Gate-money is not forth-coming ; 

 and what then becomes of this latter-day competition, and the 

 stimulus that has grown to be so indispensable ! Shall our 

 officers go out into the market-place, saying, "We have piped 

 unto you and ye have not danced ! " May not the multitude 

 properly respond, Your tune grates upon our ears ! Your meas- 

 ures do not harmonize with our tastes ! Nor do its results vindi- 

 cate your policy ! 



The Pomologist of this latter day, as he wipes the sweat from 

 his brow, wondering beneath the torrid rays of our August sun 

 wherein he profited to have his home in the temperate zone, 

 takes compulsory note that now, again, after the lapse of an 

 entire generation, Cherry, Peach, Grape, and Pear, succumb to 

 excessive frost following hard upon prolonged drought and the 

 Apple parches, falling from the tree. A. D. 1861, your Trus- 

 tees voted: "that in consequence of the extreme lightness of 

 the crop of Fruit, of every species, it is deemed advisable to 

 discontinue the Annual Autumnal Exhibition already announced." 

 That necessity enforced itself because of a cataclysm alike ele- 

 mental and political. The mercury had fallen in early January 

 to minus 30°, which rigorous temperature, abetted and aided by 

 a searching wind, blasted bud, and split tree-trunk wide open. 

 The country was in the first throes of Civil War ; and, from one 

 end to the other, our own Commonwealth shivered in the fierce 



