1893.] TRANSACTIONS. 21 



session with scrupulous fidelity ; and, when disengaged, songht 

 instruction or relaxation at the Nurseries of Brighton, or Cam- 

 bridge ; and equally the liospitable estates of famous local Pom- 

 ologists whose prolific orchards were unstinted in their bounty to 

 worthy recipients.^ Varieties that had not matured when the 

 session closed were sent to acquaintances thus formed, who 

 naturally became appreciative and steady customers at those 

 Nurseries, as the fruits commended themselves thereafter. Hon- 

 est gratitude for political preferment took an inoffensive and 

 peculiar form of manifestation ; such being the case especially 

 with the Sheriff of Suffolk County^ and the Adjutant General of 

 the Commonwealth.^ Neither omitted an opportunity to trans- 

 mit to their tried friend in Worcester scions from approved 

 trees, and ample supplies of luscious fruit in season for those 

 Receptions at which, as they had personal experience, their offi- 

 cial superior was wont to entertain visitors from abroad to the 

 Annual Cattle Show. Like gracious courtesies were a habit of 

 Zebedee Cook, Jr., and Marshall P. Wilder. Worcester was 

 also connected by various ties with the ancient Town of Salem, 

 whose citizens were ever eminent for that curious proclivity to 

 the cultivation of the soil which invariably characterizes the 

 mariner when he ceases to plough the main. Pomological speci- 

 mens from the City by the Sea were familiar here, years before 

 the name of Manning became conspicuous upon generous annual 

 contributions to the Exhibitions of this, infant. Horticultural 

 Society. The opening of the Blackstone Canal to a navigation, 

 and inland commerce, which was prosecuted with dubious success 

 until aggressive Manufactures robbed all the water, made close 

 friends of former strangers, introducing the banker-merchants of 

 Providence to the yeomanry of Central Massachusetts, and rivet- 

 ing the ties of profitable intercourse with the bonds of social 

 courtesy. Since in those Arcadian days, Fruit was a staple arti- 

 cle of entertainment. Apples were placed before distinguished 

 guests for grateful refreshment, and none looked upon their 



1 It may be pertinent to note, in this connection that, upon the roll of " Original 

 Founders" of " The Massachusetts Horticultural Societ.v," are conspicuous the names 

 of Oliver Fiske, Levi Lincoln, William Lincoln, and Daniel Waldo, all of Worcester. 



E. \v. L. 

 '^Sheriff Sumner, and Adjutant General Dearborn, e. w. l. 

 3 



