44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



pack for market ; you are really working as hard as if you were in 

 the field. 



Not long since, an electric car on the West End road in Boston 

 came to a sudden stop. The motorman looked at the conductor, and 

 the conductor looked back at the motorman ; they looked up at the 

 trolley wire and found that all right; they took up the trap and found 

 the fuse right ; very soon an operator came along and found the trouble. 

 "Why, Billy," said he, "there is a dead rail, and all the dynamos on 

 the West End road would not start this car, nor any car we own." 

 Now we have all got to get over that dead rail, wake up, do something, 

 and do it well. 



There is a great deal said and written about Abandoned Farms ; 

 the farms are not to blame, it is the people who run them. I have 

 travelled through the Eastern and Middle States thoroughly, and have 

 yet to find the land that would not produce something. I believe that 

 all land can and should be made productive, and have no faith in the 

 necessity of Abandoned Farms, when there is a willingness to work. 

 Where my gardens are today once was rocky land covered with 

 huckleberry bushes. Now a mowing machine can run over any part 

 of it, and bicycles through the driveways ; and the result has been ac- 

 complished by nothing more than energy and perseverance. It is 

 perseverance that has rewarded every woman in this Commonwealth 

 with what measure of success she has attained. It was perseverance 

 that carried the hero of Appomattox to victory. It is perseverance 

 that carries ten per cent, of those who are successful in business life 

 in triumph over the ninety per cent, who go down. Many and many 

 a person has failed on the very threshold of success for the lack of it. 



I am not here today to speak for organization ; but I should be false 

 to every consideration, false to my obligations, if I failed to call atten- 

 tion to the grand work which the Patrons of Husbandry are doing in 

 this State and every one of the United States, and to the assistance it 

 has been to farmers in helping solve this great problem. Wherever 

 the grange has established its home and lifted its halls, as it has all 

 over the State, it has not only offered the opportunity, but, by the 

 faithful labors of the Patrons, it is securing substantial results. You 

 have your Horticultural Societies, your Market Gardeners' Association, 

 Farmers' Clubs and other organizations ; but I tell you, farmers of 

 Worcester, that to-day more can be gained in the search for success in 

 Horticulture or Agriculture through the door of the earnest, working 

 Grange, backed as it is by the boards of Agriculture, than by any other 

 organization in existence. 



