P^R E F A C E . 



At the Annual Meeting of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, 

 holden on Wednesday, the seventh day of November, A. D. 18GG, on motion of 

 Hon. Stephen Salisbury, it was unanimously voted : — 



That the Transactions of the Society, comprising the Address of the President 

 and the Reports of the several Committees at the Annual Autumnal Exhibition^ 

 with the Report of the Secretary and Librarian just delivered, be printed for the 

 use of members, under the supervision of the Standing Committee on Publica- 

 tion. 



The brevity of some of the Reports is greatly to be regretted. Whether this 

 was caused by lack of time or paucity of material, in either case the effect is the 

 same. The Society would derive much benefit, to be shared in an almost equal 

 degree by the general community, if the accomplished members whom it details 

 to their necessary, if irksome task, in addition to a bare statement of the awards 

 of Premiums, would give, at greater length and with more precision, the chief 

 and moving inducements to their action. The publication of the Transactions 

 having been resumed as a settled policy, it is to be hoped that this suggestion 

 may bear fruit worthy of the Pomologists to whom it is addressed. 



Horticultural Hall, 

 Worcester, Mass., March, A. D. 1867. 



