62 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1873. 



array of Chinaware. There has been au improvement, of late, but the 

 end is not yet. 



Currant bushes, like Cherry tree.s, have been greatly infested, of recent 

 years, with aphides. White Hellebore is an effectual safeguard from the 

 Currant-Worm, but has no desti-uctive effect upon the Aphis. Your 

 Secretary earnestly recommends a remedy which he has personally tested, 

 that is fatal to all insect life, and, at the same time exerts a salutary in- 

 tiuence upon bush or tree — Air-Slaked Lime. This is easily dusted upon 

 the leaves of a Cherry tree, when wet, from a ladder. Applied to the 

 moist foliage of a Currant bush and there will be a summary riddance of 

 all vermin. 



For the Summer of 1874, a larger room having been obtained for the 

 use of the Library and for the Weekly Exhibitions, your Secretary ad- 

 vises renewed and strenuous endeavor. Premiums should be offered to 

 the extent of our available means. Amateur Florists should be placed 

 upon a level with Professional, instead of being subjected to an adverse 

 discrimination. And an effort at least, should be made to organize Com- 

 mittees which can and will attend to their business, instead of deferring 

 the task of assigning awards to the Secretary, whose duties are already 

 sutHciently onerous. 



So many of your members were in diligent attendance upon the Four- 

 teenth Session of the American Pomological Society, that it would 

 be a work of supererogation to give a detailed narrative of its proceedings. 

 Suffice it here and now to say that the hospitality of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, like the quality of mercy, was not strained ; and 

 that our welcome was unaffectedly cordial, whether at the Highlands, 

 the princely domain of Wellesley, or in Music Hall. The Fruits from 

 the new Western States were well worth a journey to see, although your 

 Secretary is credibly informed that, upon such occasions, Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, &c., not onl}'^ do their best but their very utmost ; and that pro- 

 bably neither State could duplicate the specimens exhibited. Our thanks 

 are due to the Massachusetts Society for its courtesy. Our ambition 

 should be for a chance to reciprocate it. Had that occasion any short com- 

 ings, our hope would be, profiting by experience, to avoid them. 



At that Session some informal conferences were held with a view to 

 the formation of an American Horticultural Society, whose meet- 

 ings should alternate with those of the Pomologists. Should the plan be 

 carried out, it cannot fail of receiving your active and zealous support. 



