136 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



to another, or of our own country to foreign lands. By the 

 invention of the steam-boat, horticulture has been made a profit- 

 able as well as an ornamental occupation. Horticulturists of 

 different countries can now readily hold international conven- 

 tions where subjects of interest and importance can be dis- 

 cussed, and we can visit with ease, the far-famed gardens of the 

 East, while but few ventured to cross the ocean and seas, a 

 hundred years ago. The botanist, in a two months' vacation, 

 accomplishes more than could have been foreseen by Fulton 

 himself. The steamboat produced a revolution which has 

 shaken the whole civilized world : but American o^enius has 

 since condensed the steam and adapted the steam-engine in a 

 multiplicity of ways that have been of the greatest aid either in 

 the cultivation of plants, or in their manufacture into articles of 

 use. 



Great philosopher as was Benjamin Franklin, he did not 

 anticipate the effects of his discovery, as he held the kite string 

 so that the lightnings of heaven, might flash upon it ; but a 

 Morse has invented a telegraph that enables us to interview an 

 authority on horticulture in France or England almost as readily 

 as we would converse with a neighbor. By the telegraph, we 

 can order our Sevillian oranges, or ascertain the price of Italian 

 olives ; in fact, the telegraph reports to us the prices current of 

 all our vegetables and ordinary fruits. Nothing has so united 

 the world as the telegraph, and placed the lovers of flowers and 

 fruits so near each other. With its 1,680,900 miles of wire on 

 land, and its 112,740 nautical miles of submarine cable, is 

 there any reason why we should not acquaint each other with 

 our latest observations and progress in this art of horticulture ? 

 There has been much discussion of late about the inventor of 

 the electric motor and nearly all concede the honor to Daven- 

 port, also an American, but give to Morse the credit of the 

 invention of the recording telegraph. 



It has taken a Bell to construct the telephone that we might 

 gather from our own countrymen facts which may affect our 

 domestic commerce in fruit or vegetable. With the electric 

 light, we transform our landscape gardens, or our public parks 



