84 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, [1864. 



all of us. This part of our work, however, the enlistment of new members in 

 our cause, ought not to be neglected. It would require but comparatively little 

 effort for each of our present active members to procure one new one. That 

 effort is certainly worth the trial, and would amply repay all it would cost. 

 That the object is one which deserves our good offices, needs no words of mine 

 to prove. The influence of your Society and the work of its members in past 

 years is visible on every hand. Every collection of choice fruit-trees — every 

 line of shade-trees bears it witness — the beautiful homes within and around our 

 city which have sprung into existence, as by magic, within the few last years, in 

 whatever taste they exhibit, give evidence of its faithfulness and its power. I 

 think you will bear me out in saying that it is not too much to claim for your 

 past efforts, that for years, not a private residence with its surrounding grounds 

 has been planned and completed, not a public avenue embellished or a park 

 projected, where the work may not be traced, directly or indirectly, in a greater 

 or less degree, to influences radiating from your Association. It claims that it 

 has been largely instrumental in cultivating and forming the taste which has 

 led to private enterprises of this character, and created a demand for public 

 ones. These claims may be ignored and probably will be, by those who never 

 look beyond their own personal efforts, labors and tastes for results, but they 

 are nevertheless well-grounded, and we need not fear but they will bear being 

 submitted to any reasonable test which may be applied to them. Our object, 

 therefore, is a laudable one, and however much we may do, or however active 

 and zealous we may be in the work to which we have addressed ourselves, we 

 may have the satisfaction of feeling that our labors and efforts have nothing of 

 a selfish character in them, but that we are rather as public servants, laboring 

 for the public good. 



There is one other suggestion which I beg leave to submit to the considera- 

 tion of the Society. I refer to the publication of its transactions. We fre- 

 quently have discussions, conducted by our most experienced and successful 

 cultivators, which are of too valuable a character to be lost, and I doubt if there 

 is any way in which a portion of the income of the Society could be more profit- 

 ably expended, than in putting the results, at least, of these discussions into 

 some form for circulation among our members ; even if some small sum were 

 to be charged for a yearly publication of our transactions, I have no doubt 

 but they would be eagerly sought for and readily taken by our members. It is 

 precisely what they need most — the result of experiments made at home in a 

 soil, and under a climate their own. 



Again, it has always seemed to me hardly courteous to ask gentlemen, selected 

 as they are for their experience, to spend several davs of their time in your ser- 

 vice in the various committees, and then consign the results of their labors to 

 the Secretary's chest, never to be brought to the light again. This is not as it 

 should be. We have a Committee on Publication, but it never has any duties ; 

 or, if it has any, those duties have been necessarily usurped by scissors and 

 paste, assisted by the pains-taking of your Secretary, and the kindness of our 

 daily press. We make our history, but neglect to put it in a permanent form for 



