1893.] TRANSACTIONS. 17 



side and allow inferior experience and knowledge to usurp that 

 direction and proficiency which has been our peculiar boast for a 

 Half-Century. Wrote George Jaqnes, A. D. 1847: 



"Few similar Associations have accomph'shed so much, in so 

 brief a space of time, for the purposes to which they have been 

 devoted, as has already been achieved by the Horticultural 

 Society of Worcester County, in these the first years of its 

 infancy." 



" If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in 

 the dry ? " 



And now, after the lapse of so many years, as we look around 

 Upon the multiplication of Garden, Orchard, and Park, that 

 shine as jewels in our local landscape, is it not permitted ns to 

 inquire if this Society, to which so much credit belongs for the 

 general adornment, can justify itself for stepping voluntarily to 

 the rear! Grant that the Agricultural Society is involved in 

 onerous indebtedness ! Are wo the horse-fanciers whose broken 

 promises led to incurring that hopeless burden ? We have obli- 

 gations of our own, incurred for legitimate improvement of our 

 property : shall wo therefore start a race-track and manage a 

 circus? Is there any option for us, if we would maintain this 

 Society in full health and vigor, save to keep it persistently in 

 the ways that have so far guided us safely ; — the ways of thrift, 

 active development, and open beneficence ? 



For it must be noted that, whereas our own Exhibitions are 

 free to all who choose; the results of our experiments and tlieo- 

 ries being published to the entire community, without price, at 

 the exact date of floriage or fruition ; the alien entertainment 

 which we are solicited to provide, in part, is burdened by oppres- 

 sive charges. Our Members must purchase admission, with others. 

 From our own Hall we go forth to the highways, inducing the 

 wayfarer to come in and see what the earth hath been made to 

 yield under assiduous culture. Elsewhere, — they close i7i the 

 highways, put restrictions upon egress, and exact weighty fees for 

 eacii successive entrance. Wherein, in all this, do you " advance 

 the Science and encourage or improve the Practice of Horticul- 

 ture ? " Stimulated to the utmost during the half-century of 

 your corporate existence. Horticulturists throughout the County 



