1889.] TEANS ACTIONS. 27 



and, when the appointed time came, to die; until the haste to get 

 rieh beyond measure created and upheld the high-pressure fac- 

 tory system. 



Travel sometimes opens the eyes and broadens the observation. 

 Our minister to Portugal,* so well known to you in all his Protean 

 shapes, sojourning for the nonce in one of the " effete mon- 

 archies," is now of the opinion that, 



"The tiller of the soil in America is interested in the tiller of 

 the soil in Europe, and the herdsman of the plains feels that the 

 fountain-head from which his animals have sprung forms an 

 important part of the most cultivated agricultural economy. The 

 lesson the farmer is to learn is spread out over every latitude 

 and is taught by every nationality. The results of experiments 

 and experience in one land may be profitably observed in another ; 

 the failures may warn, the success may encourage. Even the 

 manners and customs may be studied with protit ; the great 

 opportunies on the one hand and the narrow limitations on the 

 other." 



Might not we. Horticulturists, do well to invite a halt? Possi- 

 bly retrace our steps in their downward tendency ! Should we 

 not at least consider if it were not better for Massachusetts ; at 

 any rate this grand old Terrsecultural County of Worcester; to 

 encourage and foster men and women instead of mules and 

 spinning jennies! 



A short while since, this Society felicitated itself, not so much 

 upon the gain of a measurable relief from taxation, as in having 

 secured some equitable exemption from a burden, intolerable 

 because invidious and exacting. In all the Commonwealth there 

 were but two (2) Horticultural Societies. They had been man- 

 aged with frugality ; had applied their savings to the extension 

 of their legitimate operations, and as the direct result of the as- 

 siduous devotion of fifty (50) years to the purpose and objects of 

 their existence, the product in Massachusetts of flowers, fruits 

 and vegetables had become what the dullest observation cannot 

 fail to see. If in Faneuil or Quincy markets; or in the detached 

 and diminutive shops that yet remain their inferior substitutes, 



* Hon. George B. Loring. 



