34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



advised, for if " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," it is 

 no less the price which any institution mast pay, if it wonld 

 thrive and grow and accomplish the ends of its existence. 



We may with reason and propriety confess that " we have 

 done many things that we ought not to have done and have left 

 undone many things that we ought to have done." And yet it 

 does not seem in looking over our achievements that having 

 made this our general confession, we need to occupy for a long 

 time the mourner's seat, or prolong the wail of self-deprecation. 



If through our intervention new and improved vegetables have 

 been brought to the attention of the market gardener ; if our 

 weekly displays of fruit and the competition excited thereby has 

 raised the standard of fruit culture — has stimulated the grower 

 to aim at perfection in appearance and flavor — has educated the 

 general public to better discrimination and increased consump- 

 tion — has introduced new choice varieties and perpetuated those 

 which have been proved and not found wanting; if our floral 

 exhibitions, our periodicals and the rare volumes on our library 

 shelves have so quickened an aesthetic taste that our lawns antl 

 grounds, botli public and private, have taken on an added 

 beauty ; if garden and conservatory have been enriched with rare 

 exotics and plants from every clime ; if each succeeding year 

 has witnessed an additional interest in the science and art of 

 Horticulture on the part of both our own members and the gen- 

 eral public ; if this Society has accomplished these results it 

 may well claim that it has shown a " raison d'etre^'' And that 

 it has accomplished these results there is no room for doubt. I 

 make the assertion, without fear of contradiction, that the two 

 societies, the Massachusetts and the Worcester County, have 

 accomplished more for fruit culture and market gardening in 

 Massachusetts than all otlier agencies combined. That it has 

 accomplished more for Floriculture goes without saying. 



The possibilities of Horticultural science in this direction may 

 be best illustrated in the marked — the almost miraculous — im- 

 provements in those three typical plants, the orchid, the rose and 

 the chrysanthemum. 



The culture of the orchid with its curious mimicry of organic 

 life — of the bee, the butterfly, the dove, the swan, beetles, flies, 



