12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



a majority of the lesser fruits, we appear to have actually receded : 

 Strawberries and Raspberries, especially, scarcely coming np, 

 either in variety or quality, to the high standard maintained in 

 former years. Somewhat of this depreciation is justly charge- 

 able to the season, — the prevalent drought in particular; owing 

 to which your Secretary^ for the first time in a long experience, 

 was unable to gather even the smallest measure of Hornet or 

 Brinckl^s Orange. High winds have caused much damage to 

 the larger fruits, stripping them prematurely from the trees and 

 seriously marring them in their fall. But after all, is it not a 

 grave question ; — what do our Exhibitions teacli ? Premiums go 

 to fill the pockets of those who get them. Yet what does the 

 Society receive in return ? What do we know, after the award, 

 more than before, of the conditions under which the approved 

 specimens were grown ? Take for example, that remarkable dis- 

 play of Earle's Bergaraot, on Sept. 14:th, ulto. What, if any, 

 were the peculiarities of soil, or culture, that conduced to their 

 signal superiority? Its parentage renders the question one of 

 importance, if we would perpetuate that noble variety, once so 

 nearly lost, and now but sparsely propagated upon less than a 

 dozen trees, on as many house-lots in the very heart of the city, 

 liable to be built over at any time to the destruction of the trees 

 and the extinction of the variety. And what of that lot of huge 

 Superfin^ shown by Mr. Moses Church, on tlie 28th of Septem- 

 ber, whereof the twelve specimens weighed but a fraction less 

 than as many pounds ! ^ Why did not his trees die from the 

 Blight, by which they were so sorely afflicted ? Did Linseed Oil 

 save them after all, and is it therefore an approved remedy for 

 that mysterious disease, which comes without warning and dis- 

 appears as suddenly, leaving desolation in its insidious path ! 



A. D. 1847,— OuQ Hundred and Seventy-Two (172j plates of 

 Peaches were displayed upon our tables, at the Annual Autum- 

 nal Exhibition. Two years later the number of plates was Two 

 Hundred and Fifty-Six (256); John Milton Earle contributing 

 Seventeen (17) varieties, among which were Early Crawford, Late 

 Crawford, Cooledge,Red Rareripe, Yellow Rareripe, George IVth, 



1 The exact weight was 9 Ibi. 10| ounces. Their size was uone the less remarkable 

 that the award was made after a scale of points, e. w. l. 



