1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 17 



In the preliminary remarks with which George Jaqnes, of 

 honored horticultural renown, prefaced his pamphlet record of 

 transactions during our earlier history, he says that : 



"The success of the society was no longer to be questioned ; a 

 large number of gentlemen (would that we could add — and 

 ladies) became members of it." 



The statement which he was unable to make is, A. D. 1889, 

 the easiest possible to your Secretary, as it would have been at 

 any time within an entire generation last past. It might be 

 difficult to exaggerate the extent of our obligations to our female 

 associates of this Society, not alone in Worcester, but throughout 

 many of the adjoining towns, who have so zealously contributed 

 from their time and means towards the success of the frequent 

 exhibitions. It does not require a very keen observer to notice 

 that the favor of Ceres and Pomona is uncertain ; often withheld 

 upon the merest pretext that this rowen must be got in, or that 

 corn shucked. Flora is no such slouch : doing all things de- 

 cently and in order, and yet keeping her skirts ever clean as the 

 whitest snow-flake that threatens her very life. It has often 

 cheered your Secretary, as he lifted his eyes from the dull routine 

 of his clerical task, to behold the apparition that would surely 

 greet him, of bright looks, intent interest, and the sure develop- 

 ment of the loose collection into a tasteful arrangement. The 

 weight alone of the well-filled baskets should be appreciable to 

 some who have not yet felt the grasshopper a burden. And all 

 this, bear in mind ! constantly ; as well in the fervent heat of early 

 summer, as during that sticky, oppressive season sacred to the 

 dog-star and his countless litter of stellar pups. Whosoever else 

 may faint or falter. Flora and her votaries offer a cheek fair and 

 fresh as the blush rose to our salute of welcome. Robbing 

 themselves for our benefit, our bounty can return at best but an 

 inadequate recompense. Yet if the remuneration that we may 

 bestow cannot, in the very nature of things, be commensurate 

 with desert, it will be possible, at the worst, to manifest an 

 appreciation as cordial as it should be unreserved. 



But with all this devotion and self-sacrifice can we not detect 

 a taint, as it were, connecting it with the soil, — of the earth, 



