1871.] FESTIVAL OF COMMEMORATION. 31 



of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which he was present to 

 represent, although they are not quite coeval. He spoke of the won- 

 derful improvements in agriculture and horticulture within the last 

 hundred years, and attributed it mainly to the eftbrts of Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Societies. He dated the reform from 1785, in which 

 year the First Agricultural Society was formed in the country, in 

 Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, with Timothy Pickering as its first 

 president, which was followed in 1792 by the formation of a similar 

 society in Massachusetts. 



It was not until 1806 that the first Horticultural Society was founded 

 in London. In 1827 the interests of horticulture were afliliated with 

 those of agriculture in Pennsylvania ; in Massachusetts, a horticul- 

 tural society was formed in 1819, in New Haven in 1832, and here in 

 the city of Worcester, in 1840, the society, whose independence the 

 company was then celebrating, was formed. Since then the interest 

 has continued to increase, and also the varieties of various kinds of 

 of fruit. At this last date, he said but few fruits had names, there 

 being only the Isabella and Catawba grapes in place of the long list 

 now introduced. Onlj^ a few pears were known by name, which are all 

 now obsolete, while from 800 to 1,000 new varieties have since been 

 originated. The same is true of strawberries, peaches and other fruits. 

 But these progressive achievements had not been confined to horticul- 

 ture alone, he said ; agriculture had gone forward still more wonder- 

 fully, from the old wooden plow, with which our grandfathers endea- 

 vored to pulverize the soil, to the wonderful steam plow, which moves 

 like a thing of life over the broad acres of the west. He spoke of the 

 advantages of educating the taste, rejoiced at being present, and closed 

 by saj'ing that he had passed the summit of the hill of life and was 

 descending on the other side ; that if he had done aught to promote 

 the comfort and enjoyment of mankind, it was comfort enough to sus- 

 tain him in his declining years. 



Dr. George B. Loring was next introduced by the President as the 

 "foremost advocate and champion of Agriculture.'' He was received 

 with general applause and spoke as follows : — 



REMARKS OF DR. LORING. 



Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : — I recognize in the senti- 

 ment to which we have just listened the warm-hearted generosity and 



