WORCESTER COTJNTY 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. D. 1883. 



ANNUAL KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Members of the 



Worcester County Horticultural Society. 



At the recent session of the American Pomological Society, 

 a paper was read, by the President of the Michigan State Horti- 

 cultural Society, upon the following thesis : — 



" How can we best maintain a high standard of Quality in Fruits, as 

 against the tendencies of Commercial Pomology ?" 



In plain terms, — How — to " advance the Science, and encourage 

 and improve the practice of Horticulture," can we most pro- 

 foundly sink the shop ? A precisely similar conundrum was 

 propounded, nineteen centuries since, in ancient Judea : What 

 business have the Brokers and Stock-Gamblers properly in the 

 Temple; — so near the unguarded Ark of the Covenant? The 

 remedy then and there applied, might be deemed too summary, 

 in these days of perfunctory police and vicarious virtue. But 

 the problem confronts us, just as forcibly : And it is one of 

 which the consideration cannot longer be delayed or avoided. 



Quite lately, the Country Gentleman published the replies of 

 some " eminent fruit-growers " to an inquiry by that veteran 

 Pomologist, John J. Thomas, for their choice of the Three, and 

 also of the Six, " most valuable Strawberries and Raspberries." 

 The answers are restricted within a somewhat narrow latitude. 



