18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



have striven for perfection, knowing that nothing else, under 

 yonr rigid inspection, can attain the prizes of your high calling. 

 They have searched keenlv for the slightest blemish, well aware 

 that the sharp eyes of yonr judges are trained to detect and 

 expose the least defect. Yet now you would neutralize the good 

 that has been achieved with so ranch toil and self-denial ; relin- 

 quishing your official oversight and accepting indigesta moles in 

 lieu of selected specimens; — the crude mass as a substitute for 

 the consummate unit! The very aim is avowedly mercenary, 

 defeating itself by the sheer multiplicity of objects ; they, in 

 turn, being lost to observation in the throng of sightseers whose 

 multitude, if condensed to the extreme of immobility, best suits 

 the acknowledged greed of tiie occasion. Turnstiles click to the 

 tune of — The more The merrier ! and, when movement is clogged 

 to the inertia of utter stoppage, even casual inspection becoming 

 impossible, it is then that you appreciate clearly the exact scope 

 and worth of your latter day Agricultural jamboree ! A languid 

 concern may be shown in the yield of designated animals ; possi- 

 bly the Dorset-Horns provoke a faint curiosity; but wlien it 

 comes to a computation of gate receipts, there is a commotion 

 that would better herald the passage of the contribution box 

 through a penurious and somnolent congregation. 



And all for what? That we may add to the crude mass of 

 horticultural 'produce heaped up before a crowded throng of care- 

 less observers, to whom the nicer points of pre-eminence, as de- 

 fined by long years of critical judgment in our own Hall, are a 

 stumbling-block and foolishness. The antics of Performing 

 Dogs, or the capers and contortions of the Ginsling Brothers, — 

 wherein, be it yelp or grimace, — has Horticulture part or lot! 

 In the quaint phrase of the Prophet Abraham, "for those who 

 like that sort of thing, such are probably just the things they 

 like." Preserving our integrity, we can maintain our rank as 

 one of the very foremost Societies devoted to our especial Science, 

 and Practice, in this broad Republic. Relaxing that strict con- 

 secration, our energies are weakened by neglect or diffusion, the 

 enforced halt becoming a vital, if temporary, paralysis. The 

 taste and knowledge so hardly acquired, and so keenly polished, 

 become impaired, or dulled, when constrained to the analysis of a 



