36 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1882. 



occupation he preceded the present writer ; he was enabled to 

 render the infant Society material advancement. And here it 

 may perhaps be pertinent, to take note of the assistance to 

 Horticulture, in its struggle for existence throughout this City 

 and County, that was ever cordially rendered by the conductors 

 of the local newspapers. Their columns were always open to 

 statement, or Report, that would help on the cause ; without 

 which publication it would be impossible, at this day, to trace the 

 successive steps towards the present high plane of development. 

 Nor is that spirit of kindness diminished by the lapse of time. 

 What Earle, and Thomas Drew, in the /S^y ; and William 

 Lincoln, William N. Green, and Samuel F. Plaven, in t\\Q ^gis ; 

 advocated and encouraged ; in the interest of the common 

 welfare and a more refined public taste : that, the Spy^ and the 

 Gazette, under their later management, have never failed to 

 forward by all legitimate influences. It is not every community, 

 wherein so much can be declared with absolute unreserve. 



With Lemuel B. Hapgood, who died in the adjoining town of 

 Shrewsbury, on the 22nd of February, ult., your Secretary had 

 but a limited personal acquaintance. He can well recall, however, 

 the punctuality of his appearance at our Annual Exhibitions, 

 some forty years ago ; and the sure reliance upon his ample and 

 excellent contributions to our tables that was seldom disappointed. 

 Li a sketch of his life it has been stated that his earlier years 

 were passed in the town of Grafton ; whence he soon returned to 

 Shrewsbury, buying a farm contiguous to the paternal homestead, 

 and (what was better), taking unto himself a wife. A few years 

 subsequent, his father, desiring relief from the care of a farm of 

 200 acres, so arranged that our late deceased associate returned 

 to the place of his birth, thenceforward to remain his home. The 

 estate being now his own, Mr. Hapgood, like his father before 

 him, became an extensive and successful farmer. How extensive, 

 and how successful ! your published Transactions, and the 

 Reports of the Agricultural Society, bear faithful if inadequate 

 witness. 



Jonathan Forbush was, for manj' years, a Trustee, and Vice- 

 President, of this Society. Having accumulated a handsome 



