10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1894. 



to our "Congressman" (? Representative, or Senator), they 

 would be supplied so quickly as to take away our breath. Pos- 

 sibly ! Yet your Secretary, who is not easily discouraged, 

 confesses that his ardor was thoroughly chilled by the indiffer- 

 ence that met his repeated and earnest appeals in former years, 

 when acting as Librarian, for copies of the Reports of Explora- 

 tions in our Western Territories, replete as they were with exact 

 information, and carefully illustrated in both forui and tint. All 

 the time, it was notorious that the shelves of second-hand book- 

 stores in Washington groaned beneath their burden of such 

 volumes, sold for a song by members of Congress to whom 

 literature was of value in proportion to what it would bring in 

 " spot cash" ! In succeeding years these appeals were renewed 

 with even greater importunity in the Annual Reports of your 

 Secretary. When respectful requests are suffered to pass un- 

 heeded, what else would you have? Shall the Society go down 

 upon its knees in pliant supplication for any bone that might 

 otherwise be thrown to the congressional dog ! Not so do your 

 Committee estimate the position and dignity of the Worcester 

 County Horticultural Society in its peculiar sphere and 

 province. Nor in any such ignoble way would they suffer it to 

 demean itself for whatsoever amount of thrift might ensue upon 

 fawning. Here we stand, as for a half-century past, upon our 

 own freehold; instinct with quick, fruitful life; bestowing the 

 results of our experiments and practice freely upon all, without 

 money or price ; grateful for aid, and welcoming co-operation ; 

 yet able to maintain ourselves in future as of yore, if needs must 

 be and the exacting selfishness of politics so wills. Let parties 

 fuss and fret over " protection," if they choose ; and worry over 

 the precise percentage that may be required to save the Sugar 

 Trust from collapse ! Some day it will dawn upon the Yankee 

 intellect that the fair flowers and wholesome fruits from our 

 gardens or orchards are as richly entitled to care as the mechan- 

 ical product of loom or rolling-mill ; and that the modest Florist 

 or Pomologist, who seeks simple freedom from oppressive dis- 

 crimination, shall be favored with all the encouragement possi- 

 bly derived from observation and research of the ablest scientists 



