Mas sachi( setts Horticultural Society. 395 



By Hon. S. Fairbanks: — 



Agriculture, Commerce, and the Arts — Whilst they are the best means and marks of 

 civilization, they give to polished society its wealth, conveniences, respectability, and 

 defence. May the American people be the last to frown upon these great branches of 

 industry, which so much adorn and bless society. 



Letters were received from several distinguished gentlemen, invited as 

 guests, which the time did not permit of reading. 



The following sentiment was appended to a letter from Hon. Isaac Davis, 

 President of the Worcester County Horticultural Society : — 



The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Parent of all similar Societies in Neto 

 England — May the children imitate the noble deeds of the Parent. 



The President here remarked that it was less than forty years since the 

 formation of the first Horticultural Society in the world, and at the time of 

 our own organization, there were but two or three in this country ; that now 

 many of the cities and populous towns of New England have these associ- 

 ations, and new ones are constantly rising up throughout the length and 

 breadth of our land. That horticultural papers and periodicals had been 

 the great agents, and eminently promotive of diffusing a wide-spread influ- 

 ence and interest on this subject, one of which, in this city, had already 

 reached its 11th volume. He would give — 



'The Magazine of Horticulture — Alike creditable to its author, and useful to the com- 

 munity. 



Mr. C. M. Hovey, the Editor of the Magazine of Horticulture, replied to 

 this sentiment : 



Mr. President, — I had hoped that, among the great number of ladies and 

 gentlemen who have been pleased to join our festival, you had forgotten the 

 annual complimentary sentiment, which you or others, have been pleased 

 to bestow on me ; and that I might have escaped the task of troubling you 

 with any remarks, deeming it preferable, sir, to be a listener to the rich flow 

 of eloquence which has fallen from those who have preceded me, rather 

 than that others should listen to me. But, sir, your compliment is one 

 which I feel proud of, and I thank you for it. Standing alone, without a 

 single cotemporary, I feel bound, however reluctant, to offer you a few 

 brief remarks. 



You have alluded to the usefulness of Horticultural publications in dis- 

 seminating a taste for the pursuit of the science, and to the fact that our la- 

 bors have extended to eleven volumes. Leaving to you and to others of our 

 readers, among whom we are pleased to recognize so many now present, to 

 say how far they have aided in the object for which the Society was insti- 

 tuted, permit me to allude to the results which have already fojlowed the 

 periodical literature of Gardening. 



To whom are we indebted for much of the zeal which actuated the orig- 

 inal founders of this Society 1 To those, sir, whose names we now see in- 

 scribed upon these walls and in this glorious place, and whom we all know, 

 all honor. First, and at the head, stands the name of Lowell, whose time, 

 — whose money — and whose talents, were given with a perfect prodigality 

 to the spread of information upon every branch of Horticulture. His pub- 

 lished essays and papers in the Memoirs of the Massachusetts Agricultural 



