A. D D R E S S 



OF 



J. HENRY HILL, President, 



At the Tic f nil/sixth Annual Exhibition, in Review of the Condition 

 of the Society. Delimred on Thursday Evening, September 21, 

 at 8 o'clock. 



Ladies and Gsntlemen of the Worcester County Horticultural Society: 



We have for some time past looked forward to this our Twenty-Sixth An- 

 nual Exhibition, with alternations of hope and fear. And while we are con- 

 strained to admit that our fears have been to some extent realized, our hopes, 

 on the other hand, have been, to an eminent degree, fulfilled. Although our 

 ■exhibition has not been attended v/ith that decided success which we could 

 have wished, and which has marked some of those in former years, still 

 no one can look over the fine collection of Pears upon your tables, and the 

 abundance of Grapes and Vegetables in their respective rooms, and feel dis- 

 posed to so much as hint at failure. The Apple crop which has hitherto fur- 

 nished one of the most attractive features of our exhibitions, we all knew had 

 entirely failed ; and the display of that fruit, meagre as it is, comparatively, is 

 a subject of universal, but agreeable surprise. The Pear family, notwithstand- 

 ing the unfavorable character of the season, has come nobly to the rescue, and 

 furnishes us with far more than an average show : indeed, we have very rarely had 

 a larger number of plates of remarkably fine Pears upon our tables than at the 

 present time. The withdrawal of the premium for the largest and best collec- 

 tion has, unquestionably, had the effect to very much reduce the number of en- 

 tries. The question of restoring it in future, is one worthy of vour considera- 

 tion. The departments of Grapes and other Fruits, and of Flowers, are con- 

 siderably in advance of many previous years, and that of Vegetables fully up 

 to the average of former Exhibitions. Taking all things into consideration, 

 therefore, your present Exhibition, in many of its features, may justly be re- 

 garded as a remarkable one. 



By the following tabular statement, it will be seen that while there are not so 



