6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1870. 



$140 ; in 1869, with several hundred members admitted free, the receipts for 

 admission amounted to $500. At the exhibition at the hall of the Society in 

 Waldo Block, in 1848, all the duties were performed by two committees — one 

 on flowers and decorations, the other on all fruits and vegetables. In 1851, the 

 Grst year that the Society held its exhibition in Horticultural Hall, the Society 

 was so destitute of means, that no premiums were offered, the only reward to 

 contributors being an honorable mention by the committees. In 1852, the 

 premiums on apples and pears severally were $18. This year the former are 

 $133 and the latter $150. This year the premiums on grapes are $92. Plums, 

 peaches and quinces, $57. Plants and flowers, $240, and on vegetables, $171. 

 We cannot question that this increase in the pecuniary inducements offered 

 and the liberality of the Society in premiums will be met in a corresponding 

 spirit by its members. In many other respects great changes have taken place. 

 Formerly the number of contributors were few, and a large portion of the 

 specimens entered came from the grounds of a few individuals largely engaged 

 in the cultivation and sale ot pear trees ; but the great changes and growth of 

 our city has, in a remarkable manner, affected our fruit-orchards and gardens. 

 The trees whose fruit ten years ago so largely contributed to fill our tables, 

 have fallen beneath the improving axe or have been transplanted to more quiet 

 quarters. It is difficult to recognize the spot on which the one hundred and 

 twenty varieties of pears, contributed by John Milton Earle in ISfiO, were 

 raised, on his then lot between Main and High streets, which, together with 

 the lot of his neighbor George T. Rice, who yearly exhibited choice fruit, has 

 now been appropriated to the erection of a large cathedral and blocks of stores. 

 We find now Merrick street with numerous dwelling houses extending over the 

 grounds from which in t^e same year D. Waldo Lincoln contributed one hun- 

 dred and three varieties of pears. The former customer of the Colton nursery 

 would hardly realize that the ground on the corner of Main and Austin streets, 

 now occupied by high brick blocks of stores, and boot and shoe manufactories, 

 was the place where for so many years Samuel H. Colton raised and sold, not 

 the customers, but all varieties of fruit trees. These three gentlemen, Earle, 

 Lincoln and Colton, were for many years our largest contributors. But the 

 reduction in the number of varieties contributed by single individuals has been 

 more than compensated for by the increased number of competitors. As a 

 consequence, there is a greater discrimination as to varieties and great im- 

 provement in the quality of the fruit raised. All must be satisfied that it is 

 better to cultivate a small number of varieties of choice and approved fruit 

 than to experiment with a large number of uncertain kinds of fruit. And to 

 aid in their selection in pursuance of the general purposes of the society, the 

 Trustees have recommended lists of those which have proved best adapted to 

 our soil and climate, which lists are by them revised as occasion requires. 



It is not one of the privileges of the President to inflict upon you a lengthy 

 address at this time, but it has been customary for him to state the condition of 



