76 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1873. 



The discrimination between Amateur and Professional Florists, which 

 has worked so successfully throughout the past Summer, should be estab- 

 lished as a Rule for the Annual Autumnal Exhihitions. Its opera- ■ 

 tion has been so beneficial, so far as aj^plied, that no fears need be enter- 

 tained from its unlimited extension. 



Attention is called to an Exhibition proposed to be held on the Nine- 

 teenth (19th) day of March, A. D. 1874. The taste for Window Garden- 

 ing is likely to become such an auxiliary of our Society that is was judged 

 wise, b\'' the Committee selected to revise the Premium-Schedule, to offer 

 a list of prizes for Bulbs and Plants that bloom in the Vernal Season. If 

 Members, and the community generally, shall second this effort, it may 

 be the means of great public utility. At worst, it will doubtless afford a 

 partial substitute for the Poultry Show, hitherto the attraction ,of that 

 period, but more recently transposed to mid-Winter. 



It may also be worth our while to consider the expediency of assuming 

 charge, in future, of those Autumnal Exhibitions of Ferneries^ so credit- 

 ably initiated by the [Natural History Society, but which, abandoned by 

 that organization, might lapse into our hands naturally enough. Admir- 

 able facilities for such a display will be furnished in our new Rooms. A 

 simultaneous Show and Trial of Bipe Fruit would have its advantages. 



At the last Annual Meeting of the Trustees, instructions were given 

 to 3-our Secretary to petition Congress, in behalf of this Society, for a 

 restoration of the Postal rates upon the transmission of Plants and Scions 

 by mail, as they were in force prior to the session of 1871-2. The action of 

 the Federal Legislature in redress of a wrong, contrary to its usual wont, 

 was so exceeding prompt that the obnoxious Statute was repealed, and 

 the yet more offensive " construction " of the Post Office subverted, be- 

 fore such Petition could be prepared. It may prove a mild emollient to 

 the wounded feelings of our excellent associate and Trustee, who keeps 

 so close watch and ward of the material and moral interests "of Tatnuck, 

 but who, in a moment of political oblivion, lost sight of his Butler, to 

 learn that for this act of justice, gracefully done because done quickly, 

 the people are mainly indebted to the Representative from Essex. Those 

 of us who are willing to accept our rights, at whosesoever hands they may 

 be vindicated, feel at liberty to remonstrate with our associate for not es- 

 teeming works meet for thanksgiving an adequate condonation for the 

 failure of political calculations. 



The slow but sure advance of the Colorado Potato Beetle (Dorypliora 

 decemlineataj toward our borders has been carefully noted and often 

 chronicled in these Reports. As it was found, during the past official year, 

 in Delhi, Delaware Co., New York, our prospects are slight of longer escap- 

 ing its ravages. Our friends in the Western States have fought it, for 



