20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1865. 



ANXUAL REPORT 



EDWARD W. LINCOLN, Secretary and Librarian. 



To the Members of the Worcester Countij HorticiiUiircd Society : 



In rendering his report for his fifth official year, the Secretary once more takes 

 occasion to congratulate the Society upon a season of unprecedented prosperity. 

 It is true that the early promise of the spring was not realized, all hopes of 

 fruition being literally nipped in the bud. But, in the increase and use of the 

 library ; iu the wider diffusion of a taste for and knowledge of horticulture in its 

 various ramifications ; in the unexampled accretion to its membership ; and, 

 after and despite all, notwithstanding the disfavor of the elements and the rava- 

 ges of insects, in the goodly yield of the smaller fruits and the passable crop 

 and fair quality of those later and choicer, like the pear, the corporatiok has 

 great reason for rejoicing. If history is philosophy teaching by example, how 

 much more may horticulture be concisely defined as the fruit of exact and 

 practical experience ? ' 



The elements, as just stated, have been unpropitious. By reference to his 

 diary, the Secretary finds the following entry, under the head of May 24 : — " A 

 clear, cool day, after a long-continued rain. Apprehensions are entertained of 

 the effect upon seeds already planted, of so much moisture. Cherries, so far 

 as personal observation extends, do not promise well. Young and green cur- 

 rants are stripped off by the worm.". And again, on June 2d : — " Yesterday 

 was the last of fifteen (15) upon which consecutively rain has fallen to a greater 

 or less degree. Prospects of a good crop of fruit fall off wofully. And now the 

 canker worm has come in to aid the other destructive agencies." The long 

 continuance of wet weather above stated, synchronous as it was with the blossom- 

 ing of the fruit trees, was productive (if the adjective can be used with pro- 

 priety,) of the most disastrous results. Where the pollen was not washed 

 away, or its fecundity left unimpaired, bees and other insect agents in its dis- 

 semination, found their flight impeded if not absolutely prevented. The apple, 

 cherry, peach and pear, which had exhibited an almost unbroken mass of 

 bloom disappointed expectation. And when, as it were to fill full the measure 



