1882,] TRANSACTIONS. 29 



the services of one whose approved science and applied practice 

 were second to none in this great Pomological County. Let us 

 deplore the fact that the fancied exigencies of Politics degrade 

 the original State so far beneath the supplementary and condi- 

 tional Kepublic, that it has become better to be a doorkeeper in 

 a secondary Department than the custodian of the ark of the 

 covenant ! 



" I have been young, and now am old ; yet have I not seen the 

 righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 



But you can see, if you use your eyes, incorporated and 

 endowed Societies usurping exclusive use of the faculties of an 

 expert associate ; working, as it were, a willing horse to his 

 death ; taking exception to his discharge of duty, however 

 faithful ; carping at his decisions, because not enuring to the 

 private benefit of the censor ; and, finally,— rgrudging the minute 

 and miserable compensation that^is set apart to defray the loss, 

 and waste, of time honestly devoted to an impartial and upright 

 adjudication. 



Tliere is one tendency, in Societies like our own, which grows 

 more and more evident and importunate ; but which cannot be 

 too sedulously fended or avoided. It smacks and savors of the 

 shop, so to speak ; and, in the presence of an audience like this, 

 it needs not to be proclaimed for the first time, that the foot- 

 steps of the seller should succeed, not guide, those of the pro- 

 ducer. The shop must sell, to live ; and to that end its goods 

 and wares must conform to the laws of demand and supply. 

 The shop asks only, — Will people buy this flower? Can I 

 dispose of this fruit at a profit to myself? What price can 

 these Apples, most likely, be made to fetch ? Now all such 

 questions, — howsoever essential to the solution of the bread-and- 

 butter problem, — are not comprised within the mission of Horti- 

 culture. The doctors of that, as of any other Science, must take 

 neither scrip nor staft". They must preach their gospel for the 

 very love of it. Not because the salary is snug ; not because 

 the congregation is fashionable and wealthy ; nor even because 

 the priesthood gives position and prestige : but simply from the 

 ingrained conviction that there is truth to be told and that it 

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