34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1866. 



into the hands of the members from the City of Worcester, and that our women 

 are disposed to seek their rif/his in the domain of Flora, ever ample and free. 

 But if the direction and management of the organization is to be wholly aban- 

 doned to us, by any laches of members from the county, so much the more be- 

 comes it incumbent that we should faithfully discharge our trust as horticultur- 

 ists. And this not aloue by the introduction of new fruits, or the excessive 

 development of old ones ; but also by the diffusion of that culture and taste 

 wherebv the rough places are made smooth, and the " wilderness " is caused to 

 " blossom as the rose." Let our example go out to our friends who will not 

 come to us. Let our streets and broad avenues be everywhere overarched by 

 the graceful elm, or shaded by the stately maple and sturdy ash ; trained, how- 

 ever, for their proper purpose, and not suffered to run riot, with branches so low 

 and trailing as to obstruct the convenience of passage. Let our gardens and 

 lawns be lefi open to the sunlight, without the deformity of those huge Norway 

 spruces and frightful Balsam firs, with which a vicious or untutored instinct has 

 heretofore disfigured the landscape. With the growth of the town, we should 

 adapt ourselves to new conditions. With the diminished size of lots, trees and 

 shrubs should be in proportion. The apple and cherry, if cultivated at all, 

 should be dwarfed. In the fitness of things — the precise adaptation of the 

 means to the end sought, lies the surest index to correct taste. In many re- 

 spects, we have no reason to be ashamed of our fair city. Yet shade trees 

 should be trimmed, not hacked. The Commissioners on Public Grounds should 

 do something, and have the necessary facilities for doing it. The Common, — 

 so conspicuous to the eye of the traveller from Boston to New York, — shall it 

 forever remain a hideous blotch, as at present? If it cannot be adorned and 

 , beautified, enclose the view of it from the railway with a screen of living verdure. 

 Better anything than the " abomination of desolation " so obtrusively visible. 

 As a place of general resort, whither the people of the commonwealth are annu- 

 ally summoned in conventions, we have no right to neglect the external appear- 

 ance of our public and private grounds. And to whatever is noted of deficiency 

 iu this respect, to so much of shortcoming as is evident, this Society would be 

 false to itself and faithless to the obligations of its existence, were it not, so far 

 as lies within its power, to uplift its indignant testimony and suggest an adequate 

 remedy. 



Since your last official meeting in this hall, our ranks have been sadly thinned. 

 Draper, of Worcester ; Potter, of Grafton ; and now last, not least, Champxey, 

 whom both places might well claim. In an association, united by congenial 

 tastes, which is constrained to rely upon the sympathy of its members for that 

 devotion of labor and time,' without the cheerful rendition of which all its efforts 

 must prove futile, the loss of such men would at any time compel notice. But 

 how much more forcibly does it arrest attention at a period when the active 

 energies of the community, absorbed in the lust of gain, spare no moments for 

 pursuits, of which, in answer to the " Old Bono? " of the materialist, our only 

 commendation must be, " Si quceris monumentum, circumspice ! " Would you 

 ask the benefit of my toil ? Look around upon this beautiful city, with its 



