1866.] secretary's report. 19 



ANNUAL REPORT 



EDWARD W. LINCOLN, Secretary and Librarian. 



To the Members of the Worcester County Horticultural Society : 



At a special meeting of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, duly 

 convened for that purpose at the room over Mr. Clarendon Harris' book store, 

 on the 13th day of April, 1842 — Dr. John Green of Worcester, President of the 

 Society, in the chair — it was voted " that the act to incorporate Messrs. John 

 Green, Anthony Chase, Frederic W. Paine, George W. Richardson, their 

 associates and successors, by the name of the ' Worcester County Horticultural 

 Society,' for the purpose of advancing the .science and encouraging and 

 improving the practice of Horticulture," be and is hereby accepted. This act, 

 passed by the General Court of the Commonwealth, and approved by His 

 Excellency, John Davis, (darum et venerabile nomen) an honored fellow-citizen 

 and an original member, has ever since endured as the charter of our existence. 

 With what vicissitudes of good or evil fortune, with what alternations of fruitful 

 or barren seasons, these twenty-five years have been replete ; it were a waste of 

 time if not otherwise unprofitable, to relate. SufiBee it here to state that upon 

 the 13th day of April, in the coming year, a quarter of a century will have 

 elapsed since the society assumed a corporate form and being. In past years 

 the members have been in the habit of holding triennial festivals. The 

 occurrence of flagrant rebellion and the long continuance of a tierce civil war 

 brought this custom into disuse. But it is respectfully submitted to the mem- 

 bers of the Society, of whom almost, if not quite one-half of those living have 

 acceded within the last five years, whether it might not conduce to the im- 

 mediate benefit of all, to invite a closer acquaintance ; and to their permanent 

 welfare, to ostablish a more substantial monument of past progress. Our 

 advance for the half decade just expired, sufficiently justifies the former sug- 

 gestion. What practical shape shall be given to the latter remains to be 

 determined upon a full consideration of the reasons hereafter to be adduced. 



And the only feasible method within the power of the members, in the opinion 

 of the Secretary, is to be found in the complete and speedy extinction of the 

 present debt of the Society. Wisely incurred at the outset for the construction 

 of our hall, largely reduced at times by close economy and, more than all, by a 

 noble munificence of which we have had frequent examples from the same 



