12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



indiscriminate rapture stallion, pug-dog, or tom-cat, whichso- 

 ever may, at the moment, monopolize metropolitan fancy ! 



From the very earliest day that this Society could make 

 awards of substantial value the prevalent, if somewhat selfish, 

 doctrine of protection of home industry has guided and governed 

 its bounty. The requirement was ever strict that all specimens 

 ofiered for premium should have been grown, by the competi- 

 tors, on their own premises, within the County of Worcester, 

 for months previous to the date of Exhibition. And yet, with- 

 out leave first obtained from the Society itself, an exception is 

 now made in favor of the Chrysanthemum. True, premiums 

 payable from the corporate treasury are not proposed to be 

 given to outsiders. But the dole, obtained after supplication 

 by unauthorized agency, is ofiicially held out for lure, under the 

 auspices of this Society and as a part of its formal function. 

 That which we would never consent to do, as a Society, is done 

 indirectly by our trusted servants. If j^ou will tolerate the 

 pun, our action may not be sub rosa, since "mum" is the word. 

 Has this Society sunk so low that, for an object deemed worthy 

 of encouragement it must sue, in formd pauperis, for individual 

 alms? Has this Society so far foresworn itself that it must go 

 back upon its assurance and pledge to the General Court, levy- 

 ing an admission fee when it secured partial exemption from 

 taxation upon the plea that the benefits of its Exhibitions, with 

 their resultant instruction, were dispensed to all without money 

 or price ! 



Your Secretary would put his faith in the Common rather 

 than the High School, where both cannot be had. He would 

 educate the mass, at public expense, instead of a class. He 

 would "advance the Science and improve the Practice of Horti- 

 culture," so that each family, in possession of its own home- 

 stead, should learn how best to cultivate its area, howsoever 

 contracted. He would have the local Society taught to foster 

 the development of novelty, but none the less to retain all which 

 has approved itself of merit for generations past. He would 

 spread far and wide the knowledge of every discovery, that 

 Horticulturists might profit, the Country through, though the 



