2f) WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1883. 



fresher and more tenacious hold. Whatsoever you choose to 

 make of this Society, within the coming decade, — that, be sure it 

 will become, as an instrumentality for good or ill. 



You may knuckle to cool assumption ! surrender precedence 

 to brazen pretension ! or, continuing in the even tenor of j'our 

 way, so conduct your affairs, that, when the time is at hand to 

 celebrate your Golden Wedding to Horticultural Science and 

 Practice ; there shall be none to withhold due laud and 

 reverence. For such a consummation have many labored al- 

 ready, achieving the toilsome ascent of Pisgah, yet realizing that 

 the Land of Promise, stretching out in far perspective, was not 

 for their .enjoyment, or possession. To that end may we devote 

 ourselves, — assured that no toil can be fruitless which is inspired 

 by the love of humanity : and that all labor, free from the taint 

 of personal interest, will earn and insure its own reward, in pro- 

 portion to its abnegation of self. 



Our delegation was small in number, if not restricted as to 

 size. " Temjyora mutantur P ; — as my " captatores verborum " in- 

 timate, heretofore suggested in these Reports. It was not a 

 pilgrimage to Boston, — to your next-door neighbor: nor conld 

 due representation dovetail with household shopping. But this 

 lack of adequate attendance, liable to become more significant as 

 distance extends, impresses upon me still more forcibly the duty 

 of advising a remedy. Should not this Society recognize it as 

 an inevitable obligation to be represented at each recurring Ses- 

 sion of the American Pomological Society ? Should it not 

 take all proper means to ensure that its representation shall be 

 eft'ective? It cannot always command the gratuitous service of 

 members who will defray their own expenses. It has no reason 

 to expect such service to be volunteered ; and it should have too 

 high a regard for Horticulture, — wiiether as a Science or Prac- 

 tice, — to be willing to accept such proffer if tendered. That we 

 should be represented, commends itself as eminently fit. That 

 we should be represented by competent men, is, of course, your 

 unanimous judgment. That the common treasure should sup- 

 port the common burden, must be admitted by you, upon reflec- 

 tion ; — needing no argument. And, therefore, I do not hesitate 

 to advise that the ti-avelling expenses of our delegate to Phila- 



