134 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



benefits so lavishly bestowed upon us. He who first thought 

 of adapting the gum of the rubber plant so well known in 

 South America, scarcely dreamed of the uses to which it would 

 be applied. To be sure, there were rubber trees and plants in 

 the East Indies, but it took the continued thought, for many 

 years, of an American Goodyear to discover the process of 

 vulcanizing. How could we do without this gum to-day? 

 The physician and the mechanic, the manufacturer and the 

 horticulturist alike use it. It assists in weaving our garments, 

 protects us from the storms, cans our fruits and files our busi- 

 ness papers. Its uses are too varied and numerous to be 

 recounted here. Its commercial value is great. When we 

 read of the gigantic schemes of capitalists to buy up the whole 

 rubber crop of Para alone ; when from three to five millions of 

 dollars are raised for this purpose by English and American 

 operators, we get a glimpse of the value of this plant which 

 has been made of so much importance by the unremitting energy 

 of an American mind. A simple illustration of the result of 

 industry can readily be seen as we note the diflference between 

 the old-time flower garden of our grandmothers, refreshing as 

 it was with its redolence of pinks, hearts-ease and roses and 

 the well-planned parterres of to-day. 



Last summer, curiosity perhaps, prompted me to make a call 

 upon a lady one hundred and one years of age. As we drew 

 near her home, we saw her busy at work in her vegetable 

 garden. Clear in intellect, she soon recognized one of our 

 party as the grandchild of an old friend of her youth. As we 

 left, she took us to her flower garden, and gave us a few 

 blossoms as a souvenir of our visit. Here was horticulture in 

 its simplest form, but it rendered happiness to an old heart, 

 nevertheless. 



On arriving at Boston, a day later, the public gardens were 

 decorated, in their holiday beauty, to greet the Grand Army of 

 the Republic. All that art and modern knowledge could con- 

 tribute were lent to give cheer to the thousands who should be 

 in the city on that week. In a few hours we were carried from 

 the early days of horticulture, in all their primitive simplicity, 



