60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1875 



This Vernal Exhibition, like the opening one of Koses and Strawber- 

 ries, in early Summer, was witnessed by more people than ever attended 

 similar displays since the foundation of the Society But it is to be re- 

 gretted that tardiness — that besetting vice of the age — should have 

 withheld so many, until too late, from a display which must have afforded 

 them extreme satisfaction. It ought to be considered that contributors, 

 from a distance, cannot await the convenience of visitors; but, having 

 presented their specimens within the prescribed hours, cannot be blamed 

 if they avail themselves of their sole means of returning home seasonably. 

 At the same time it will not be denied that there are contributors (luckily 

 few), who are so unreasonable as to think the Rules of the Society inap- 

 plicable to themselves; and who, therefore, upon too many occasions, 

 subject the otRcers of the Society to inconvenience, and themselves to dis- 

 appointment and loss. 



The season of early Flower and Fruit was unpropitious. Backward and 

 cold, with chilling rains and lingering snow-banks, even the Crocus hesi- 

 tated to peep, and the bud of the Strawberry shrank from the harsh ex- 

 posure. Therefore it chanced that our published Schedule could not be 

 realized; and that changes, as in years past, were made imperative by 

 absolute necessity. Upon personal consultation with every member of 

 the committee, appointed and empowered by the Trustees to establish 

 Premiums and determine the date of Exhibitions, it was concluded with 

 entire unanimity that a postponement of the Strawberry Exhibition, for 

 at least one week, would conduce to the best welfare of the Society. Of 

 course the private interests of an individual, here and there, might suffer 

 trivial injury; but the system of monetary premiums was not adopted to 



"put money in thy purse." 

 Rather, — to render meet and proper award to him of whom a dead, 

 nevertheless immortal, language, declares 



'' Palmam qui meruit, ferat." 



The insinuations of individual greed, ejected upon officers of the Society, 

 which would come with a better grace from houses less vitreous; are in- 

 dignantly repelled as the exclusive pi'operty, because solely characteristic 

 of their source. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The only officers 

 of this Society to whom Premiums were awarded left them, as is their 

 wont, in the Treasury. The example is not patented, but was left free, 

 with malice aforethought, for imitation by their disinterested censors. 



Time, however, upon which they relied, pede pulsanti, justified your 

 Committee, vindicating their action. Never before was such a display of 



