22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



required for the gathering of his harvest ! We have a grand 

 location for a Marlcet-House in this our Worcester ; but it can- 

 not be applied to its proper use because of idle dreams of its 

 lofty conversion to the barter of tape and needles ! The land 

 appears to have become an object of adoration, a sort of Fetich, 

 where from everything useful is scrupulously tabooed. Let some 

 measure be advocated, of couimon interest and general benefit, 

 behold this plot of ground, unimproved and unprofitable, is 

 thrust in the way, an obstacle alike inevitable and insuperable. 

 Without a iNIarket-Place we can have no Home-Market, although 

 the smoke from factories should besmirch the entire face of 

 Nature. If we would dispose of our Apples, like everything 

 else, we must let it be known that we have them to sell. But 

 if they are all shipped to England, will it not be too expensive 

 for those of us who wish an occasional barrel to cross over to 

 Covent Garden in their train and quest? 



Have Cattle-Shows, which show pretty much everything that 

 was not perpetuated in the Ark ; have Florticultural Exhibitions, 

 which minister to an eclectic taste in Flowers or Fruit, lost their 

 attraction ? The one exacts the last cent for admission from all 

 upon whom it can lay hands, because it must in its neck-and- 

 neck race with insolvency. The other throws its doors wide 

 open, but sees the same faces each successive week and realizes 

 that its instruction is largely wasted in that dreary monotony of 

 attendance. Newspaper columns are crammed to repletion with 

 advertisements in behalf of the Mammon of Agriculture, respon- 

 sive to which temptation editorial pens are glibly subservient. 

 Horticulture offers no pecuniary lure and gets perfunctory com- 

 ment or criticism in the limited space reserved for a bare state- 

 ment of awards. In point of fact. Floriculture and Pomology 

 command less notice than they did in the infancy of this Society, 

 when the sole method of addressing the public was to be found 

 in the weekly issues of the ^gis and 8py. If we will be satis- 

 fied with the display of our Garden or Orchard produce, nor 

 mind although no one comes to see it but ourselves, it may be 

 that our mission will be as well fulfilled even if it be not so 

 conspicuous. We invite the community to behold, that they 

 may profit by our example. It is not our ftiult if the option is 



