\ ^ ^.. ''^; 



1868.1 secretary's report. \ O " J9 V:_ 



Meanwhile, however, and prior to the departure of the Agricultutel Society- '^ 

 from the Common, our own labors had not been intermitted. ThrougnSij^ivid- " -^ 

 ual liberality, and by the expenditure of the close savings of past years, 

 trustees were enabled to secure the lot of land and to erect the building which 

 constitute the property of the Society. 



Passing from this review, which was absolutely essential to a correct compre- 

 hension of our position, it is the opinion of your secretary, based upon personal 

 observation and official knowledge, that the aims and purposes of these two so- 

 cieties, with every motive to harmonious co-operation and union, and which 

 ought never to be antagonistic, are steadily and surelv becoming diverse and 

 alien. For a few years subsequent to the erection of our building, the throng 

 upon the Common was also a crowd in our hall. It matters not that the 

 attractions were different. All were useful in their way ; and none of So little 

 advantage, that even the simplest and most casual inspection should but attract 

 greater attention and enure to ulterior profit. But, since 1855, all this has been 

 gradually changing, — and for the worse ! It is true that by dint of elaborate 

 appeals and great personal exertion, our exhibitions have not been entirely de- 

 serted. "The old guard may die ; it never surrenders." 



Many recruits have consented to share our fortunes. But to a remarkable ex- 

 tent is this latter class composed of women and children, whose countenance is 

 ever desirable,but whose co-operation is not always so effective. The pomologists 

 of the county have not held their own. The attendance of those who either are, 

 or should be, engaged in the culture of orchards, diminishes annually. Has 

 not the time come for this society to determine how far the paucity of contri- 

 butions and the noticeable decrease of visitors are but the natural, inevitable 

 relations of effect and cause ? And, should such be the case, to inquire if noth- 

 ing can be done to arrest this tendency, and to avert the apparent and other- 

 wise speedy progress from decay to dissolution ? 



Your secretary feels it his duty to state that, after much reflection, and taking 

 into consideration the present and prospective condition of both societies, he 

 cannot resist the conviction that some method should be devised whereby the 

 annual exhibitions of one should be more generally accessible and visible to the 

 members of the other. There are those, not few in number, who advocate the 

 consolidation or re-uuion of the two corporations, contending that "Mahomet 

 must go to to the mountain if the mountain will not come lo Mahomet." Their 

 argument briefly set forth, is, that if, by reason of superior attraction, partial 

 repulsion or latent aversion, the manhood of the county should be driven from 

 us, the womanhood will, in the order of nature, follow in the same track. That 

 while comity, even stronger than a sense of expediency, may restrain the par- 

 ent association from direct competition with us, in our especial province, yet we 

 can have no guaranty of the permanence of such feeling; while the possibility of 

 its change to our disadvantage cannot be safely dismissed from our calculations 

 for the future. The recent signal success of the Agricultural Society, in its 

 appeal to the public for patronage aud support in its bold enterprise, involving 



