28' WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889. 



here in Worcester ; housekeepers find the first choice fruits of the 

 garden, field or orchard ; their good fortune is directly attributa- 

 ble to the Horticultural Societies which, in Boston or Worcester, 

 were compelled to struggle for appreciation ; almost for existence. 

 For even their existence in their present degree of affluence and 

 unstinted liberality, would not be of possible assured achieve- 

 ment, were it to be attempted anew, under existing social con- 

 ditions. A half-century ago, every one took an interest, which 

 they were neither too fastidious nor lazy to manifest, in the 

 infant Societies. Each and all contributed what they had at the 

 time, and strove hard to exhibit more and better the next year. 

 At that period nobody cared if a gelding could be brought to 

 trot a second faster; its utility in propagating its kind being 

 duly estimated. The bicycle had not been invented, and no one 

 could imagine that the order of nature might be reversed, night 

 being transmuted to day, that man should attain the full meas- 

 ure of his stature and more completely develop his likeness to 

 his Maker, by crouching, ape-like, over a trick of mechanism ! 

 The purpose of those disinterested men, the founders, was to 

 cause the earth to blossom as the rose, to induce a double return, 

 getting two blades of grass, where before was but one ! And, 

 until those Societies, by their savings, were enabled to possess 

 homes of their own, wherein and whereby to perfoi'm their 

 bounden duty under the laws of the Commonwealth, they were 

 constant recipients of individual and public favor. Ever since 

 they have been singled out with a curious persistence to bear the 

 burden of a discrimination that became, yearly, more invidious 

 and oppressive. 



But the relief sought by Horticulture was enacted at last and 

 still later, doled out in grudging and pinched measure. The 

 statutes declare that 



" Portions of houses of religious worship appropriated for pur- 

 poses other than religious worship shall be taxed at the value 

 tliereof to the owners of the houses." 



Has the treasury of the City of Worcester ever derived a cent 

 from the acute vigilance of its Assessors, applied to the close thrift 

 of those shrewd saints whose God is apparently their belly! and 



