1866.] secretary's report. 21 



chiefly indebted, and which yet add most to our embaraassment. For it is no 

 exaggeration to assert, that the space occupied by flowers and plants in 1866, 

 (and most richly was it deserved,) was two-thirds larger than that required by 

 any similar display in previous years. Appreciate then your condition, if, 

 besides the superb floral display of the current autumn, we had been compelled 

 to find room for the apples, grapes, pears and vegetables of iormer years, not 

 to speak of peaches and plums, for which we vainly look, but which as surely as 

 that " seed time and harvest shall not fail," will yet re-appear. 



The table appended will repay scrutiny, for it shows that the entries were, 



"^■~ 1860. 18G5. 1866. 



Apples, 92.5 262 



Grapes, 181 92 



Pears, 973 445 



Vegetables, 492 296 



Or, in plain words, if simply the apples and pears of i860, and the grapes 

 and vegetables of 1865, had been equalled in 1866, as, by the concurrence of 

 propitious seasons, may be the ease even in the ensuing year, we should be 

 constrained, allowing space for the flowers and plants of the late autumnal 

 exhibition, to accommodate upon our tables two thousand five hundred and 

 seventy-one (2571) plates in lieu of one thousand and ninety-five (1095.) It 

 was once said of our city, when judicial vacancies were so frequent as almost 

 to go begging, that " Worcester was equal to the emergency.'" Doubtless, in 

 the cas'e supposed, the committee of arrangements would do much that is 

 usually impossible. But might they not also exclaim, in heaviness of heart, 

 with a late deceased President of the Republic, "My sufferings is intolerable." 

 To your Secretary the statement carries its own commentary. But, when to it 

 we add the prospective and possible growth of Worcester, never increasing more 

 rapidly ; the partial defects in our present edifice, to which particular allusion 

 is not more expedient than necessary, but of which the frequent and inevitable 

 consequence should appear in the reports of the Treasurer ; our unfortunate 

 and insecure proximity to a theatre ; and the fact that no enlargement of the 

 present building is practicable without an additional outlay for land ; are we not 

 justified in looking around to see vvherein our condition can be improved? 

 There can be no dispute that ihe purchase of the present limited location was 

 wise, in the infancy of the Society. There is grave question whether its perma- 

 nent retention can be made desirable. But there is least question of all in the 

 mind of your Secretary, that the taste which we especially seek to develope and 

 the interest and co-operation that ought above all to be attracted, are not to 

 be found now, as they assuredly will not be in the future, commorant upon that 

 one of the streets of Worcester which, above all others, is best fitted for whole- 

 sale traffic. 



We assume and profess to the community our ability to provide adequately 

 for the contributions of all, not only who are now-, but of those who may 

 become members. Is it not our imperative duty, then, to look to the possible 



4 



