56 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892. 



the committee while tasting this exquisitely delicious fruit was a 

 higher commendation in its favor than we can easily express upon 

 paper." Which of these gentlemen it was whose countenance 

 beamed with such satisfaction the record saith not, but I think 

 the probability is that it was John Milton Earle. It may be of 

 interest to state that the tree which bore the fruit that produced 

 such an effect on his countenance — making it, doubtless, even 

 more benign than was its wont — is still standing and bearing 

 fruit. 



The mention of the name of Mr. Earle brings to mind the 

 prominent members of your Society whom I have met or with 

 whom I have had correspondence. Among whom I recall the 

 names of William N. Green, George W. Richardson, Samuel H. 

 Colton, Daniel Waldo Lincoln, Henry Chapin, Stephen Salisbury, 

 and Charles E. Brooks. But, alas ! these worthies are all de- 

 parted and so are those two excellent ladies, Mrs. George W. 

 Richardson and Mrs. Marshall P. Wilder, by whose side I sat at 

 a festive gathering in this hall in 1871. I am glad to see upon 

 these walls the portraits of some of these gentlemen, to whom 

 your Society owes so much, and to know that their successors are 

 following in their footsteps with unabated ardor. 



But I have said enough unless it were better, and I can find 

 no more appropriate conclusion than the words of George Jaques 

 in closing the introduction to the first pamphlet printed by your 

 Society : " May the series of these publications never end until 

 New England's deserts shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 



President Parker : — I have now the pleasant privilege of 

 introducing to you a member of the Massachusetts Society, wiio 

 has visited us so often and done us so many favors as to seem 

 almost like " one of the family," a friend of the family certainly 

 if not a blood relation. 



I have the great pleasure to present to you a gentleman who 

 hardly needs introduction, a member of the State Board of 

 Agriculture as well as an active member of our sister Society, 

 the Massachusetts, E. W. Wood of Newton. 



Mr. Wood, after pleasantly acknowledging the courtesy of the 

 President, alluded to the astonishing advance of late years in the 



