20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1885. 



itself, and should be of interest to all Pomologists in the Re- 

 public. A time-lionored Society that exists in exuberant force 

 and vigor ; that possesses a priceless Library, and a Hall then 

 freed from debt ; that counts its life-membership by hundreds, 

 comprising, living or dead, a large proportion of all that has 

 given Worcester its eminence, throughout what are now the 

 United States, for science, learning, or enterprise ; can neither 

 be ignored nor neglected. Doubtless there would be no such 

 disposition ; as there could be no sufficient motive for it. But 

 importunity is not always discriminating ; and localities, in their 

 impatient struggle for recognition, are not over-careful if they 

 sometimes jostle merit aside. 



This subject is again commended to your attention that you 

 may reflect upon it in all its bearings and be better prepared for 

 timely action. The Sessions of the American Poraological 

 Society occur in tlie odd-numbered years. As the next is already 

 assigned for A. D. 1887, in Boston ; its successor will be due in 

 1889. A. D. 1892 will be the date of our Fiftieth Anniversary. 

 It is submitted for your consideration, whether it may not be 

 wise to tender, through our delegates to Boston, an invitation 

 for the American Fomological Society to hold its Twenty-Third 

 (23d) session in this City. That body could then decide if it 

 would prefer to skip one year, in its sequence, omitting its 

 regular meeting in 1891, for the sake of gratifying our wishes 

 and doing honor to our local Pomology ! 



Our Society will doubtless learn, from its delegate, what im- 

 pressions were produced upon his mind by the interchange of 

 opinion at Grand Hapids. The proceedings, as reported in the 

 contemporary press, appear to be colored by an interest some- 

 what remote from our own. The comparisons and discussions 

 were mainly confined to the Smaller Fruits, so called ; and, in 

 their progress, was rendered yet more glaring a deficiency to 

 which your attention has been often invited in these Reports. 

 Outside of New England there would seem to be scarcely any 

 knowledge of the Raspberry, in its superior development. 

 The little tier of Counties bordering upon the Hudson River 

 can scarcely be counted an exception to this rule ; for, even in 

 them, varieties that always flourished heretofore have, latterly, 



