1895.] TRANSACTIONS. 7 



certain variety of pear by Mr. Thomas, his wife informed mc 

 that my venerable friend " was not permitted to read, write, nor 

 even to have any one read to him." This, upon Dec. 30, A. D. 

 1893. For two months transcending a year his existence was 

 prolonged under such grievous disability. It is understood that 

 he had been able, in his latest years, to prepare a new Edition of 

 his elaborate work upon Fruits and their Culture. His life was 

 profitably and well spent in that learning and practice whereof 

 he had such thorough mastery. Let us be grateful that our So- 

 ciety is permitted some legitimate share in his name and fame ! 



A brief correspondence between the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington, and your Secretary was held while the century 

 was growing old, to which I would not now revert were it not 

 in the public interest to show to " what base use " the gratuitous 

 distribution of seed, conflicting with the legitimate traffic of 

 honest, self-supporting dealers, " may come at last." The whole 

 system cannot but be partial and, if only for that reason, must 

 be wrong, root and branch. In theory it corrupts the moral 

 sense and, when degraded to its usual practice, is destructive 

 of straightforward integrity. The Representative, say from the 

 Fall River District, who commences his career peddling " zig- 

 zag corn," likelier than not will seek to "make his" second 

 " calling and election sure " by a modification of the excise upon 

 spiritusfrumenii! at the demand of men who get a precarious 

 living off "Cattle-Feeding" in Wall street. The notification, 

 which came to hand by way of a New Year's present, as it were, 

 was to the following purport : — 



" United States Department of Agriculture, 

 "Washington, D. C, 189. 

 " To Edviard Winslo^o Lincoln, Esq., Secy, of Wor. Co. 

 Horticultural Society. 



" Sir: By request a package of seed is mailed to you to- 

 day, but may not reach you within several days. The Depart- 

 ment wishes to know of its receipt, and asks acknowledgment on 

 postal card. 



" Respectfully, 



"J. Sterling Morton, 



" Secretary." 



