18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1868. 



ANNUAL REPORT 



EDWARD W. LINCOLl^, Secretary and Librarian. 



To the Members of the Worcester County Horticultural Society : 



Twenty-eight years have now elapsed since the enactment and acceptance of 

 the charter of this Society, plainly and explicitly declared by the languao;e of 

 the act to be ''for the purpose of advancing the science, and encouraging and 

 improving the practice of Horticulture," It would be unprofitable to waste your 

 time and exact your attention by an inquiry into the precise measure of success 

 that has crowned the efforts of the members. The most cursory observation of 

 the present development of floriculture and pomology, throughout the city and 

 county, as contrasted with their condition in 1842, will suffice to demonstrate 

 that these exertions were not wholly fruitless. But, for a long period of time, 

 we were aided by the fostering proximity and sympathy of the Worcester Agri- 

 cultural Society. 



The multitudes that attended the exhibitions upon the Common were attracted 

 by identity of interest and congeniality of pursuit to our own, at that date hum- 

 ble, room. Our members and theirs, essentially the same, were enabled to 

 exchange experience, and by inquiry and comparison, to derive benefit from 

 the rich fruits of experiment and toil, which were thus submitted for notice. 

 The mere farmer could not fail to see that there might be improvement in the 

 garden and orchard ; while the busy denizen of the city was taught by his own 

 senses that the animal kingdon was constantly ransacked for whatever was 

 shapeliest and most useful, and that the search had not been idle. 



But, in August, 1852, precisely ten years after the incorporation of the Hor- 

 ticultural, the Agricultural Society was compelled by the growth of the city and 

 the consequent impracticability of longer holding its exhibitions upon the Com- 

 mon, to procure a new and permanent location. With that view a portion of 

 the present tract upon Highland Street, was purchased, and, in October, 1853, 

 the ground first occupied for the annual cattle show. Agricultural Hall was 

 built in 1855 ; as one result of which construction, until quite recently, another 

 exhibition of fruits and vegetables, distinct from and opposed to, if smaller than 

 our own, was regularly announced and held. 



