8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1884:. 



location served for a partial protection from such unseasonable 

 cold, — yielded a fair crop. But, if the market-question is legiti- 

 mate, in a Horticultural point of view, where, all things consid- 

 ered, was the profit ? Has not the time come when the Pomolo- 

 gist, if he would derive a living from his business, must attend 

 to it or quit it ? It has seemed — for long, — to your Secretary, 

 that greater avail must be had of the simpler forces of Nature. 

 Cannot the strawberry plantation be submerged ? fond of water 

 in its season as it confessedly is, precisely as must be done with 

 the cranberry. Of course, it should likewise, in that event, 

 possess the lowlands, whereto windmills may lift upon occasion; 

 or the running stream supply its convenient and copious aid? 

 Why cannot that windmill, — seldom idle in Worcester County save 

 from choice, — suck or drive, through a system of subterranean 

 pipes, compelling a smudge when untimely frost threatens the 

 life of the vernal Strawberry or the autumnal Tomato, Squash, or 

 Celery ? Some may smile at the suggestion of such possible 

 advanced culture : but he laughs best who laughs last, and he 

 laughs last who wins. You advise and practice underdraining to 

 rid yourselves of superfluous moisture, or to aerate your- land. 

 May not tiles, of whatever material, perforated or otherwise, be 

 utilized as efiectively for purposes wholly different ? 



All these problems are speculative, — hypothetical, — exacting 

 experiment for a test. Some of them may well be tried in 

 Amherst; yet location cannot but enter into the accurate deter- 

 mination of others. Why should not tliis great Pomological 

 County have an Experiment Station of its own, devoted exclu- 

 sively to the solution of difficulties in Horticulture ? The State 

 Bounty to our local Agricultural Societies might well be diverted 

 to its support. For ampler sustenance a portion of our own 

 income could find no more profitable use, thereby most effectually 



" Advancing the science and encouraging and improving the prac- 

 tice of Horticulture," 



the explicit object for which we were incorporated, as so often 

 pressed upon your attention in these Reports. The Peach is 



