1890.] TRANSACTIONS. 15 



Vegetables being set into classes alike separate and unique ; con- 

 stituting a distinction so rare as to be known nowhere else on 

 earth. Whereat our especial purists, who were so zealous to 

 purge our own entries from all taint, or even suspicion, of 

 wrong-doing, are eager to engage, with lamblike innocence, in 

 unreserved competition with the very scapegoats ! There can be 

 no accession of dignity derived from thus stepping outside of our 

 beaten tracks : since Governors and Judges illustrate our roll, and 

 the cotemporary Senator, whether Federal or State, may well 

 challenge precedence with the Minister to Liliput. Moreover, 

 all such participation in side-shows, although supplying room for 

 our exuviae^ operates by way of condonation of a gross public 

 wrong. Since we are not alone subject to taxation upon our 

 property that is devoted to the purposes of Horticulture, while 

 our mimics are not; but the bounty of the Commonwealth is 

 lavished in their behalf, to our signiMcant and invidious exclusion. 

 In a social point of view, our exhibitions were eminently use- 

 ful ; an advantage that is not wholly lost, at present. But the 

 field, once exclusively relinquished to us, is now invaded by 

 others ; whose efforts to pervert our members from their old- 

 time allegiance are not wholly fruitless. In this particular, — we 

 are compelled to recognize the Grange as a formidable competi- 

 tor ; affording as it does those attractions of pleasant intercourse 

 so irresistible to the young, and which have not actually palled 

 upon maturer fancies. Our sessions are brief: long enough for 

 their avowed object, but holding ont no especial fascination in 

 the way of cheerful amusement. This may not count for much ; 

 but it must needs have its due weight in an exact estimate of the 

 precise value of our operations. We run together in haste, — to 

 disperse even more rapidly. It may be the best that we can do : 

 but — is it f Of yore, — the hopes and illusions of a twelvemonth 

 culminated in the Cattle Show Ball ; in which extreme of revelry, 

 the energies, rigidly restricted for a year, burst their bonds and 

 found safe dissipation and outlet. Masonry, with its rites, and 

 regalia; its pomp of procession and luxury of banquet; had long 

 been under a cloud, beneath which were rare glimpses of the 

 faintest silver lining. Odd Fellows enough there were, it is true : 

 but no one had conceived the plan of banding them together in 



