104 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1865. 



siona deduced from results attained at the Weekly Exhibitions, sinaultaneously 

 registered in the books of the Secretary. When a Strawberry, in every respect, 

 better than the Triomphc de Gdud for general culture by the members of the 

 Worcester County Horticultural Society, shall be introduced and 2)>oved, your 

 Secretary will be happy and promj)t not only to note the fact, but to engage in 

 its cultivation. 



In the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, recently issued, occurs 

 the following passage : " During the year there have been distributed from 

 the Garden of the Department about 25,750 articles, comprising Vines, Bulbs, 

 Cuttings and Plants. About one-half of these were distributed through mem- 

 bers of Congress ; the remainder has been sent for dissemination by Agricul- 

 tural and other rural Associations." As the Worcester County Horticultural 

 Society was entirely overlooked by the Commissioner in this distribution, 

 although the names of over eight hundred as intelligent horticulturists as exist 

 anywhere can be found upon its roll, it is inferred that the Commissioner 

 regards it as a civic, and not a "rural," Association, whatever the latter may 

 be. The sum of our obligations to the Department of Agriciilture is about 

 the same as during the year preceding — a sum which we shall doubtless be 

 able to liquidate by proper prudence. 



A new Squash, a native of Japan, called from the port of foreign trade 

 " Yoko?mma,^' has been introduced to the notice of the Society by several 

 members. How far it will fulfill the glowing predictions that were originally 

 made of it can only be determined after longer experience. Your Secretary 

 can vouch for its extreme fecundity, having grown nearly two hundred weight 

 upon a very small plot in a limited garden. Their specific gravity is note- 

 worthy — one of the smallest, of which the development was checked by the 

 drought, exceeding four (4). pounds. Being anxious for a thorough test of 

 their merits, if such could be had, and reluctant at any rate to pin his private 

 faith upon imperfect cookery, your Secretary has distributed them, at times, 

 with a view to a strict and impartial trial of their qualities. The opinion of 

 one lady, to whose judgment the Society would doubtless accord the same 

 deference which it is equally the duty and delight of the Secretary to yield 

 without hesitation, is that the Yokohama may rightfully claim a place in the 

 front rank of Vegetables. Of the specimens before you, the smallest attained 

 its whole growth before the dry weather set in, increasing not an inch there- 

 after. The largest reached its present development in just two weeks, barely 

 escaping the first hard frost, and coloring in-doors. All the seeds have been 

 scrupulously preserved. If members of the Society wish to procure them 

 upon cheaper terms than they cost the Secretary, they can obtain them for 

 nothing, so long as the supply holds out, by applying at the proper season. 



The peculiar occupation of the Secretary, for some weeks past, induces him, 

 as he closes this too extended summary of the proceedings of the Society for 1864, 

 to invite the attention of his younger and fairer readers to a source of pleasant 

 occupation and of emolument. The custom of decorating our churches is rap- 

 idly becoming better honored in the observance than in the breach. A eon- 



