20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1894. 



die ; that only counted among the accretions of a dump which 

 no one cared to see, which they certainly would not pay to look 

 at ; as, for years, they did not for a view of Strawberry, Rose, 

 or Peach, in perfection. The Worcester County Horticul- 

 tural Society early learned that people will not pay for admis- 

 sion to Exhibitions, however excellent, which they can behold 

 duplicated, if in less degree, at every stall and window of huck- 

 ster or florist. Will those very people go over to Agricultural 

 Street and pay thrice as much for a sight of inferior specimens 

 merged in a hotch-potch classification ! 



People outside the sanctuary are easily misled. What 

 more natural than for them to conclude, if our own Members 

 find this Hall inadequate for the advancement of Horticulture in 

 its best accepted science and practice, that they also may do 

 better to stay without its portals ! Why should we not let other 

 Societies, arrogant and pragmatical, lose themselves in the mists 

 of pretentious sciolism ; wherein clear judgment is befogged ; or 

 ffct ensnared in the nets of Mammon, in whose meshes thev will 

 surely perish ! Sufier those who like to be blinded by a glow- 

 worm, mistaking its flickering spark for the pure radiance that 

 enlightens the world ! But, for ourselves, why cannot we be 

 content with assiduous devotion to that learning and practice 

 wherein we are sure of the mastery ? To that knowledge which 

 will add somewhat to the delight of the human palate, and by so 

 much augment the sum of human enjoyment ! Your Secretary 

 owns to but slight respect for a theory of existence which rejects 

 every pleasure that is within reach, and largely because it is 

 attainable ; austerely declining to enjoy the present life, in a 

 futile quest for positive assurance of another, wherein the further 

 one goes the worse he may chance to fare. 



We grow Flowers, Fruits, Vegetables : — none better ! Others 

 produce live-stock, cattle, sheep, turkeys for Thanksgiving ; and 

 to them we gladly concede superiority in their chosen line. 

 There is room enough for either without jostling, if only each 

 will keep to the right. In course of time, the several depart- 

 ments of Terrtvculture have become too large for a rigid admin- 

 istration under the lax nomenclature that is fashionable, — and 



