22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1894. 



substitution of the Horse. Note ! that I do not overlook the 

 prosperity of the Market Gardener, who deserves the good for- 

 tune for which he labors diligently, but which after all is largely 

 attributable to the propinquity of his customers. But that is 

 not farming I Nor do I forget the Dairyman, to whom pasture 

 and silo are subservient, yielding the year around a copious sup- 

 ply, which, at current prices, strips alike customer and udder. 

 But milch-cows do not comprise every "beast of the forest," nor 

 were they exclusively in the vision of the Psalmist when he be- 

 held his "cattle upon a thousand hills." It is fancy-stock bred 

 to a pedigree, salable for an excess that becomes a fault and 

 not especially prized as material for beef. Intensive agriculture 

 might redeem the wasted soils of New England far better 

 than by their abandonment to the invasion of white-weed and 

 whiter birch. But it must be an agriculture that produces the Ox 

 and his carcass, that profits by the saving of his manure whereat 

 it is so fashionable to sneer when so-called fertilizers seek 

 a handy market ; and which puts that manure where it will do 

 the most good, — composted about and above the roots of Bald- 

 win, Hubbardston, and Greening. The fruit that will never 

 lack purchasers is such as that to which our accomplished judge 

 awards first premiums. The yield from a whole orchard may 

 not be the like ; but neither need an orchardist demoralize a 

 market and ruin his own reputation by attempting to doctor or 

 deacon by misuse of defective specimens. Superior samples of 

 first-class Apples or Pears, grown in this County, may as well 

 be exchanged for the English Shilling as await the slow haggling 

 of local dealers, who are flustered at sight of a barrel and are 

 apt to pinch a dime hard when there is a glut of produce. 

 Grow worthily what you can, converting to cider or pork all 

 that is fit for nothing else. 



Is it our wish, — is it for our interest, — and shall it be our aim, — 

 to advance that most important branch of Horticulture —Pomol- 

 ogy? A.D. 1893-4, during the year just passing away, we 

 have had no apples for domestic consumption. Even our orig- 

 inal mother Eve would have escaped temptation, had she been 

 obliged to look upon a peck of defective and half-decayed Rox- 



