40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1882.] 



added our honored associate, "I was perplexed to decide whether 

 I had spoken disrespectfully of the Ecliptic, or had committed 

 The Unpardonable Sin !" Of this last, — he could have acquitted 

 himself, upon reflection ; — for he was never remiss in the 

 payment of his Pew-E.ent. Concern for the health of those 

 dearest and nearest to him compelled long absences from his 

 home ; and much of the time during the later years of his life, 

 was spent abroad. But lie was no idle lounger ; seeing nothing, 

 and failing to profit by his opportunities for observation. He 

 told me much about what he had noticed in the markets of Paris ; 

 that there was fruit in plenty, but not, as in the United States, 

 for the People. Referring to Pears, — he found but one or two 

 varieties of apparent superiority to tliose we have in Worcester ; 

 and, for ripe specimens] of such, which he purchased out of 

 curiosity so as to be at liberty to test their quality, he was obliged 

 to pay a Franc each. For a person fond of fruit, and liking it 

 in plenty, it seemed to him that few places could claim equality 

 with that modest, inland city, wherein he had so long made his 

 hospitable and pleasant home. 



Let this Society never forget to be grateful for the services 

 which he was able and glad to render to the Science and 

 Practice of Horticulture, amid the distractions of an active and 

 exciting public career. 



John C. Whitin was a Vice-President of this Society from A. 

 D. 1853, to 1860, when he voluntarily retired ; his private affairs 

 exacting his undivided attention. 



"He was born," says his local biographer, "in Northbridge, in the 

 village which bears the family name, A. D. 1807, his father being Col. 

 Paul Whitin, who settled there in 1782. His father was a blacksmith, 

 and the son began work, as a child, in the picker room of the North- 

 bridge Manufacturing Company, which his father had organized. At 

 12 years of age he was transferred to the machine-shop of the mill, 

 and stayed theie three years, having the benefit of the common 

 schools of the time. # * * * * 



His first patent was on a picking machine, in 1832, and from then his 

 record was one of continual and successful improvement in every 

 portion of the mechanical equipment of a cotton factory. His inven- 

 tions were accepted by the trade generally, and the business of machine 

 building grew steadily until the great shop, 303 by 102 feet, was built, 

 in 1847. As business increased, a division became desirable, and Mr. 



