8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



them to our deliberate judgment, and wherefrom occasional 

 departure, upon the spur of a iieeting impulse, has been fraught 

 with decadence and loss? For more years than memory can 

 easily recall, it was a settled practice to confine our efforts to 

 the promotion of Horticulture within the County of Worcester, 

 rightly deeming that field ample for all that we might do or 

 consider. /So, — we have prospered beyond ordinary measure ; 

 and (fnis, in all likelihood, we might continue to win praise and 

 accumulate substance, if only contentment, that pearl of modest 

 deserving, were esteemed an adequate reward for individual 

 effort. We are ever striving and hoping for a bountiful harvest 

 whereof the superfluity but contributes to nourish our discontent. 



But we are not satisfied with "a little field well tilled," heark- 

 ening to the siren song that we should challenge the competition 

 of Florists throughout the Republic in one particular department 

 of professional rivalry. Without similar challenge, the Fruit 

 of Worcester County speaks for itself everywhere, acknowledg- 

 ing no superior. Why should it be deemed worth our while to 

 enlist in the foolish strife of modern professionalism ; to array 

 ourselves as floral gladiators whereby, if at the close of an 

 embittered struggle, we achieve cup or purse, it must follow 

 upon the sacrifice of all those incentives to which we owe our 

 past uninterrupted prosperity ! 



Nothing struck the Senior Salisbury so forcibly, in a trip 

 through England almost a half-century since, when he visited 

 an Exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society, as the fact 

 everywhere too plainly manifest, that the preference of a limited 

 class appeared to l)e regarded rather than the tastes of the multi- 

 tude. He warned us to beware of that pitfall. Is there not 

 cause ; is it not time to repeat that warning of our whilom Presi- 

 dent and always benefactor? Shall we exalt the flowers of 

 restricted culture, howsoever gorgeous in color, over those 

 superb species which every one admires and that any one may 

 cultivate to perfection ! Shall the Chrysanthemum command 

 the devotion of Three Days, — the Rose of an hour and half? 

 What are its shortcoming-s that we are no lono;er to consider the 

 Lily I What is there in that built-up idol of caprice, conceit, 



