6 WORCESTER COrXTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1865. 



tied, once for all, againat the policy. If on the other hand, it is the best, or 

 one of the best means for doing this work, tluMi the question of expense be- 

 comes one of a secondary character. And I venture to aliinn now, and with- 

 out fear of contradiction, that the experiment has been lairly tried ; and with 

 those who have been intimately acquainted with our history for the last fifteen 

 years, there will be very little hesitation in pronouncing judgment. From 

 eighteen hundred fifty-two to eighteen hundred fifty six, inclusive, our transac- 

 tions were published, with one exception, annually ; and who of our number 

 that has kept an eye to the progress and growth of the Society, can point to 

 any other five years of its existence marked with more decided or more rapidly 

 increasing prosperity than these. There was a vigor and a life manifested du- 

 ring that period, which we have to a greater or less degree wanted since — a 

 more general and lively interest, and a more healthy activity than in the years 

 which immediately followed. In eighteen hundred and fifty-six, for economy's 

 sake, our transactions were published in a cheap and inferior manner ; and my 

 own recollection is, — and I was connected with the Society as its Secretary from 

 1852 to 18G1, inclusive, and had occasion to notice these things, — that from that 

 time, vague suspicions began to be entertained and expressed, in some quarters, 

 that we were on the decline — that our inability, as it was called, to publish our 

 transactions, was evidence that we were not in a very flourishing condition. 

 And when publication ceased altogether, I can distinctly recollect the look of 

 disappointment which came over members when told in answer to their inquiries 

 for the Transactions, that the Society did not publish them "this" or "that" 

 year. They evidently felt that their membership was shorn of half its value if 

 the only information they were to derive from it was through the eye, at the an- 

 nual Exhibitions — by looking at fine fruit without being told how to produce it. 

 It seemed like taking a step backwards — that after having assumed a position 

 among associations of a kindred character, of importance enough to warrant 

 the publication of our proceedings annually, we had voluntarily surrendered. our 

 rank and withdrawn a positive power from the service in which we had engaged. 

 But we have now resumed the work of publication, and in the volume of the 

 present year we have done all that could be done to fill the hiatus in our history 

 caused by these eight years of neglect : and I think the general satisfaction 

 with which its appearance has been hailed by the members of the Society, and 

 the large accessions to our lists during the year, justify the wisdom of the step. 

 In these later times, when every thing of character, and every principle of 

 ln>uor, of integrity and of faithfulness to duty, seems to be laid upon the altar 

 of gain — when every man seems to have an lago at his sidq, whispering in his 

 ear, " put money in thy purse," — ^' oidi/ put moneij in thy j^urse,^' it is difficult 

 for most of us to conceive it possible that any man, or any association of men, 

 should have an existence for any other purpose than the accumulation of wealth- 

 But let us, as a Society, keep free from the influences of this pi-evailing spirit. 

 Let us constantly keep in mind that we are not associated together to make 

 money — to heap up treasure •, but to diffuse information upon the subject we 

 have in charge, to do a work which will conlribute in some small degree, it is Ic) 



