8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



such assumption. The newer houses indicate the difiusion of 

 a better taste in construction ; and the grounds, where any are 

 left, disclose greater care to maintain a neat appearance. For 

 this latter: — thanks to the genius of invention that provided 

 the lawn-mower ! Moreover the roads towards the suburbs are 

 improving; and the old stone-walls, sold to the crusher, or sunk 

 beneath the surfece, yield place to the grassy slope that serves 

 as well for exclusion, while defining boundaries better. But 

 yet, — those huge barracks that tower aloft, in every portion of 

 our City ; are they aesthetic ! forbidding of aspect and unwhole- 

 some in fact ! I find no fault with Queen Anne, — for she should 

 not be held responsible for all that Architecture ( ?) attributes 

 to her, in Worcester. Even she, — dullard that she was, — would 

 have realized that a house is meant for a home ; and that, in 

 New England at least, its roof should be so contrived as to dis- 

 charge, not retain, snow or flood. 



And, with Thirty-Six (36) square miles, essentially vacant, 

 unpastured even, what justification is there for the crowded 

 tenement? Whence the excuse for the narrow, paved court? 

 Shall Mammon always set God at defiance ! Let the protest of 

 Horticulture be instant and ever constant, in irreconcilable hos- 

 tility to such barbarism I 



The large estates are divided piecemeal ; the old gardens give 

 way to brick and mortar. Shall the last state be worse than the 

 first ? The city is pushed out into the country : that ex[)ansion 

 implies pecuniary gain. But, — shall the man lose his own soul? 

 You say not ; and that Horticulture is a potent agency to pre- 

 vent such debasement. We, who are passing from the stage, 

 might perhaps be excused for indulging in a little mild gratula- 

 tion. The past is secure. But you, — the corporation that is 

 undying ; you, who are to take up and carry along the work 

 that falls from our nerveless hands ; cannot boast so long as 

 aujrht remains to be achieved. 



" And the King of Israel answered and said. Tell him, Let 

 not him that girdeth on his harness, boast himself as he that 

 putteth it ofi'." 



You note the fact that this Society has carried on its beneti- 



