1866.] secretary's report. 35 



stately buildings, its tasteful gardens, its well-kept lawns, and its studiously de- 

 veloped opulence of flower and fruit ! Behold the county, with its impulse from 

 the parent society, branching out into new organizations, each reacting upon 

 and stimulating the old ! W^re the lives of our lamented associates wasted, who 

 made two blades of grass spring up where but one grew before ? Is not their 

 reward, for the time devoted to the interests of this Society, in the appreciation 

 and love of the community, richer than Mammon could furnish ? 



Of Mr. Potter, whose concern was manifested in our earlier history, a more 

 familiar pen should write. But of Samuel P. Champney, who united himself 

 with its fortunes ft-om its original inception to the day when the hand of dis' 

 ease was laid too heavily upon him ; whose contributions were in every variety 

 and in surpassing excellence upon all our tables ; and whose regularity of at- 

 tendance at all meetings for business might well be accepted as a rebuke by 

 many far more conveniently located ; shall aught be said but that he was con- 

 scientious in the discharge of all his duty, and diligent in all the relations which 

 he bore to the Society? Upon the closing day of our autumnal exhibition, his 

 spirit ascended to Him who said, " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 

 yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in 

 itself upon the earth," and who " saw that it was good." 



Does Edwix Draper require a eulogy in this presence ? Which one of you 

 all is ignorant with what untiring assiduity he applied himself to promote the 

 growth of this association, and to develop the results of that growth ? How he 

 toiled, " in season and out of season," to give form and substance to our exhi- 

 bitions ? How, never sparing himself, he was willing to assume upon his own 

 overburdened shoulders the tasks of others, too indolent or selfish to emulate an 

 exemplar so active and disinterested ? Of an energy that proved itself unfail- 

 ing, of quick perception, but brusque in manner almost to rudeness, he was 

 often misconceived. Yet, with all his apparent abruptness, he could be patient : 

 and, though irritable at times, was gentle even to tenderness when he perceived 

 that no offence was intended. As Chairman of your Committee of Arrange- 

 ments, he was diligence and punctuality itself. All your exhibitions were timely 

 planned and thoroughly ordered. There was a place for everything and every- 

 thing was in its place. As the omission of the statues in the ancient funeral 

 procession revived the memory of departed heroes, so the absence of the ready 

 presence, the prompt suggestion, and the kindly word of our lamented friend, at 

 the recent autumnal exhibition, brought to mind, all too forcibly, the irreparable 

 loss sustained by the Society. By whomsoever his place may be supplied in the 

 future, he may well esteem himself fortunate if he can rival, in ever so partial a 

 measui"e, those excellent qualities of head and heart which so commended the 

 late Edwin Draper to our judgment and affection. 



EDWARD W. LINCOLN, 



Secretary and Librarian. 

 Horticultural Hall, 

 Worcester, Mass., Nov. 7th, 1866. 



