24 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



put themselves to inconvenience ; — even to pay for the sight ! 

 Now, — the dullest wayfarer along Main Street, for nine months 

 of the year ; latterly for quite a twelve-month ; has but to keep 

 his eyes open to behold what man hath garnered whence God 

 wrought. At one stall of fruiterers, opposite Elm Street, the 

 Orange and Banana jostle the Roxbury Russet ; the Straw- 

 berry, Apricot, Peach and Grape challenge each other for prece- 

 dence. Motion discounts space ; invention contriving ways 

 whereby the tropics are made to lay their fruits upon thresholds 

 to which paths have been broken through ice and snow-drifts. 

 By the time that we could hold an Exhibition, whether of Fruit 

 or Flower, curiosity has been dulled, appetite sated. For Fruit 

 is not unique in this position. Long before the vernal equinox 

 permits us to look forward to milder airs and propitious skies, 

 the windows of the Florist are brilliant with the vari-colored tints 

 of Crocus, Hyacinth and Tulip. I make the positive assertion 

 that this Society has never held an Exhibition of Spring-flower- 

 ing bulbs ; of Azalea Indica even ; that, when its strength of 

 membership, resources, and cultural skill are properly accounted, 

 was not actually discreditable. In saying this, I do not forget 

 how, at one time or another, and often as the result of personal 

 solicitation, we have been rescued from imminent reproach by 

 contributions, yielded at great inconvenience and risk, from 

 Whitinsville or the State Lunatic Hospital. Nor is it so much 

 matter for wonder. The Florists have sold their stock : spray 

 and blossom going to decorate window and hearth-stone of the 

 private dwelling ; more likely, to adorn altar and chancel ; or, as 

 this Society has had bitter experience ! the grave. For of the 

 gardener, whether in or out of Eden, it is as true after the Fall 

 as before he was ordained to his especial ministry, that — " they 

 which minister about holy things, live of the things of the tem- 

 ple." Nor, of "oxen and failings" only; but of every blood- 

 less thing that is sacrificed to Flora and Pomona. What they 

 have not kept they cannot exhibit. What they did not reserve, 

 for the especial purpose, is no longer theirs to display in this 

 Hall. 



And from countless gardens, or lawns by the wayside, may be 



