PREFACE. 



In preparing the present issue of the " Transactions, " it has been 

 thought advisable to follow the precedents of the past and to include 

 in the publication some account of the latest Festival of the Society. 

 For the accomplishment of this task, in any tolerable measure, 

 recourse to the columns of the Gazette and the Spy was indispensable. 

 The meagreness of the details, notwithstanding such effective aid, is 

 greatly to be regreted. 



The poverty of the Reports at the Annual Autumnal Exhibition, 

 w'ith the single exception of that upon Vegetables, is also to be 

 deplored. " The short crop of Apples afforded a fine opportunity for 

 broad generalization if not for definite conclusions. The abundance 

 of Pears and their average excellence, merited elaborate notice. But 

 of these as of the superior contributions in the Floral departments, 

 all that will be known for future instruction or comparison, must be 

 deduced from the bare fact that one or another specimen was adjudged 

 worthy of a premium. 



Is it unreasonable to hope that the future publications of the Society 

 may be enriched by a portion at least of those fruits of close observa- 

 tion that are annually gathered in by the skillful Horticulturists of 

 Worcester County ? E. W. L. 



Horticultural Hall, 

 Worcester, Massachusetts, March 4th, A. D., 1872. 



