WORCESTER COUNTY 



HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



A. D. 1882. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Anno Domini 1842, tlie Worcester County Horticultural 

 Society received and accepted its Act of Incorporation from the 

 Great and General Court. The Charter was conferred upon 

 the townsmen and gownmen of Worcester. The mechanic and 

 yeoman co-operated in a generous rivalry ; and the community at 

 large, with rare perception of its opportunity, afforded an essen- 

 tial support. 



" A charge to keep, I have ; " 



warble the melodious hirelings of the Sects. Forty years have 

 elapsed and a Trust survives ; witliout other wage for its faithful 

 performance than the consciousness that you have discharged a 

 duty, voluntarily assumed, and gratuitously rendered. A gen- 

 eration has passed away ; but few of our early founders and 

 benefactors remaining, to be cheered by our grateful recognition 

 of their disinterested and invaluable services to the cause of 

 Horticulture; and I am privileged to salute you here, today, not 

 as devotees of this or that creed ; not as affiliated with the 

 partisan divisions of the hour ; not as middle-men or Grangers ; 

 nor even as Sovereigns of Industry or Slaves of the Lamp ; — 

 but proudly, if simply, as Members of 



The Worcester County Horticultural Society ! 



While England was fairly revelling in a climate like that of 

 the fabled Atlantis, we, upon this side of the ocean, struggled to 



