50 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1850. 



They are sorry, however, to be compelled to believe that the attraction of 

 every department of the exhibition might have been greatly increased, had the 

 zeal of many cultivators residing in the immediate vicinity, been in any means 

 equal to their ability. 



Nevertheless the lovers of fruits and flowers may well congratulate them, 

 selves upon the measure of prosperity to which the Society has attained ; grati- 

 fying as it is for the present, encouraging as it may be for the future. 



One thing cannot fail to be noticed, that the pomological resources of the 

 Society have wonderfully increased within a comparatively short period of time. 

 Ten years ago, there were placed upon a few small tables in an obscure room, 

 three or four dozen dishes of apples, chiefly of the most common varieties, a few 

 plates of pears, — kindly given, or reluctantly lent, for the occasion by cultiva- 

 tors residing within the territory proper of the Mass. Hort. Society — a score or 

 two of Quinces, and one solitary sample of the peach. 



To make out the attractions of the display, the room itself was decorated 

 with paintings. These and other preparations having been made, the people 

 (counted as easily by scores as hundreds) assembled to witness the first regular 

 exhibition held by the Society. 



A few years have passed away, and the Society have just held their Eleventh 

 Annual Exhibition. Their large and commodious hall was filled with tables 

 leaving only passage ways between them. Upon these were arranged twelve 

 hundred plates of beautiful fruit, all carefully labelled ! Beside the members 

 of the Society, more than two thousand visitors crowded into the hall to exam- 

 ine and compare the fruits, and to become bewildered by the profusion that 

 surrounded them. 



The display of Pears alone comprised nearly four hundred plates, containing 

 specimens of not less than seventy varieties ! 



Of Apples, there was a still greater quantity, although the number of known 

 varieties might have been less. 



More than thirty varieties of the Peach were exhibited, among which were 

 several fine and beautiful seedlings. 



Although late in an unpropitious season, the best collection numbered not 

 less than thirteen valuable varieties of the Plum — a cheering evidence that, 

 in spite of the black excrescence, the rot, and the curculio, it is not yet time 

 to despair of this favorite fruit. 



Of Grapes grown under glass, a single cultivator — D. W. Lincoln, Esq., of 

 this city — exhibited nine varieties. Several specimens of the grape grown in 

 open culture were upon the tables, but they were mostly unripe. 

 There were also fine Quinces and other fruits. 



A list of the names of those who contributed largely to this exhibition, would 

 comprise among others, — 



D. W Lincoln, — Pears : sixty-three varieties ; Grapes, (grown under glass) 

 nine varieties. 



J. M. Earle, (President of the Society), Pears: forty-seven varieties; 

 Plums : four varieties. 



