16 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1884. 



Our appeal was for justice. We did not originate the policy 

 of exemption from taxation, for any cause soever ; since it is 

 coeval with the existence of the Commonwealth. But we did 

 object to an invidious discrimination, whereby it was implied 

 that the culture and development of Flower, Fruit, or Vegetable, 

 is of less consequence than the growth of Corn or Hogs. Since 

 those original laws of exemption were passed, Horticulture has 

 attained to its full stature ; and Pomology, its leading branch, 

 assumed the dignity of a Science. The export of Apples alone, 

 while not what it should be, and must inevitably become in the 

 near future, is yet of importance enough to occup}' a conspicuous 

 place in the Treasury columns. Cultivation of the Strawberry, 

 tiie Peach, and the Grape, engages whole communities ; consti- 

 tutes the entire season's traffic of railways ; and furnishes 

 employment and sustenance to the population of great States. 

 We asked for tlie practical recognition of a fact too palpable and 

 plain to be ignored longer. Are you satisfied with the response ? 

 Will you content yourselves with this imperfect measure of 

 reparation ? Or will you continue the struggle, until you achieve 

 a position of equality with otiier interests, of no greater conse- 

 quence, but which are more favored in the eye of the law ? 



The property of Agricultural Societies is exempted, although 

 used by the Societies themselves for but one or two days in the 

 year. In addition, — they receive a bounty from the State 

 Treasury, designed at first to be an equivalent for the amount 

 appropriated in premiums. What little Horticulture gets, it 

 gets grudgingly, mucii like the bestowal of cold victuals upon a 

 tramp ; and with about an equal suspicion of demerit, on the part 

 of the reluctant donor, in either case. 



Now why should not the Exemption, if any, be as absolute for 

 Horticulture as for Priestcraft ? Why should Agriculture got 

 gain from leases to an Irish Patron, to Buffalo Bill, or to 

 Technical Foot-Ball ; and Horticulture be proscribed for deriving 

 rent from its ground floor, without which source of revenue it 

 could not even exist ? Deprived of revenue from our property 

 we could not offer premiums by way of encouragement in experi- 

 ment or continued trial. It has been our good fortune to have 

 had benefactors, by whose munificence, aided by the frugal 



