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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
LIBRARY

SB
1

1888-89

TEANSACTI

OF THE

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,

FOR THE YEAR 1888.

^Xoxct^Uv, Pasjsi.

C II A K L E S II A M I L T () N . 1' li I N T E U
3 11 MAIN STREET.

1888.

6

W^'i

I Z t^'-S"^

CONTENTS.

Page

In Memoriani 5

Report of the Secretary 13

Report of the Librarian 33

Bieb

In Worcester, December 16th, A. D. 1887, Francis
Henshaw Dewey, aged (56 years, 5 months, 21 days.

■r"T 'iTiffiiimii Hill iiiiiBii'iim \MVi-'-^-"-^^^--Jni^-'*Bst iBiiiiii^iia^Miii i iiiiiiiaiMiiM^

l7b Memoriam.
At a meeting of the Trustees of the Worcester County
Horticultural Society, specially convened on Monday,
December 19th, in the Hall of Flora, the chair was taken
by First Yice- President Stephen Salisbury, who ad-
dressed those present, as follows :

The Worcester County Horticultural Society has met
with a great loss in the death of its President, Hon.
Francis H. Dewey. One of the original members, a
President of the Society at various times, in all covering
a period of ten years ; a lifelong friend of horticulture
and a constant contributoi* to the exhibitions of the So-
ciety; Judge Dewey remained nearly alone of the early
band of associates who gave the necessary impulse which
has resulted in establishing this most useful enterprise
upon its present sound and secure basis. All of us re-
member the active co-operation afforded when the So-
ciety was in its youth by each and every member; when
it was felt to be a special and important duty to attend
all meetings, to contribute specimens to all exhibitions
and to write elaborate reports when connected with the
various committees. Judge Dewey was among the
most faithful from the first ; and he brought to the So-
ciety a very considerable acquaintance with botany and
a genuine love and knowledge of flowers and fruits, a

6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

knowledge which he had not acquired by inspection
alone, but from practical experience. But beyond the
constant interest shown by Judge Dewey in our objects,
his uniform urbanity and unfailing consideration for
each and all of us, and the disposition he always mani-
fested to unite conflicting interests, and to be just and
fair under all circumstances, endeared him most closely
to this Society, and will cause his memory to be pre-
served as one of its foremost promoters.

Vice-President Henry L. Parker next arose, saying :

This event has a special sadness and significance to us
from the fact that it is the first instance in the history of
the Society where a President has been removed by
death, while still an incumbent of that oflSce ; and also
from the fact that up to within so short a period he was
so actively interested in the Society's work. It seems
but yesterday since we saw him an interested and de-
lighted spectator at the Chrysanthemum display, the last
exhibition of the year. Judge Dewey was one of our
first citizens. No man among us was more universally
loved and respected. No man has held more positions
of influence and trust or filled them more acceptably.
But this is not the place or the occasion to speak of his
great abilities at the bar, upon the bench, as a financier,
or to enter upon any general eulogy upon the many
sterling virtues of his well-rounded life and character ;
that will be done elsewhere and upon other occasions.
We wish to remember him specially with reference to
his connection with this Society. I have been asked to
prepare some memorial to be placed upon our records,
and I submit the following for your consideration :

The Worcester County Horticultural Society, through
its Board of Trustees, desires to place uj^on its records

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 7

this memorial of the Hon. Francis H. Dewey, its late
President and ex-officio president of this board.

Judge Dewey was one of the first incorporators of
this society and a lifelong-, active member. During the
most, if not the entire, existence of the society, he was a,
member of its board of trustees.

For many years past at each annual meeting of the
society he has been unaimously elected its presiding
officer, and in that capacity has rendered most valuable
service.

With all the cares of an extremely busy life and the
pressing demands upon his time, he has rarely been
absent from our meetings. Oftentimes they have been
stormy sessions, when personal strife and the enmities
engendered by a sharp competition waxed warm. On
all tliese occasions he has presided with an unruffled
temper ; his rulings were prompt and impartial, while
his gentle, kindly bearing seldom failed to bring peace
to the troubled waters.

He was a frequent contributor of fruit and flowers,
with a special fondness for floriculture, and at the weekly
displays of the society he was a constant visitor, show-
ing a special interest in the floral collections, and with
a genial smile and pleasant word for all whom he chanced
to meet.

To an unusual degree did he possess the confidence
and love of our members, and his sudden demise has all
the force of a personal bereavement.

Trustee James Draper said that he was one of
the youngest members of the Society and during
the past four years has been a judge on fruits,
etc. There had been times in this work when
he needed instruction in order to fairly solve a problem

8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

while in the discharge of his duty as judge at the ex-
hibitions. He had found Hon. Francis H. Dewey
his friend and helper at all times, and the lamented judge
always kept an eye out for the minute details of the so-
ciety's work. Mr. Draper made a motion that a com-
mittee of six, of whom the chair shall be one, be appointed
to attend the funeral. Carried ; and the chair appointed
Messrs. Edward AV. Lincoln, Henry L. Parker, Charles
E. Brooks, O. B. Hadwen and Dr. George E. Francis.*

Secretary Edward Winslow Lincoln said that he
could not let this occasion pass without paying a trib-
ute of affection to the memory of his lifelong associate
and cherished friend:

For the first time in the history of the Worcester
County Horticultural Society are its members convened
to mourn the loss of their President, dying in full pos-
session of office.

Upon the third day of March, A. D. 1842, the sig-
nature of Governor John Davis was affixed to "An act to
incorporate the Worcester County Horticultural Soci-
ety." In the month of May thereafter, our lamented Pres-
ident took up his residence in this city; and from that
time his name and fame became a legitimate part of our
corporate and active history. On our roll of mem-
bers the name of Francis H. Dewey appears seventh
under his initial letter; and the inference is fair that
he was among the foremost to appreciate the need of the
new association and make it a reality.

When required, his best services were ever at our com-
mand. He acted upon committees of award with
cheerfulness, though it is a species of drudgery from

* Mr. Draper had an imperative engagement out of town.

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 9

which many shrink. His legal experience was freely
proffered in our behalf, and but recently became of avail
to our exceeding benefit. His time was spared un-
grudgingly, if his obligations as Trustee exacted. And
of how fully, completely and gladly he officiated as
President, there should be no occasion for recital to this
audience. He had accepted election at your instance;
thereafter for him nothing remained but the conscien-
tious discharge of every duty appertaining to the office.

This Society has never lacked members whose skill
in pomology had achieved a fame that far transcended
the limits of the Commonwealth. President Dewey
partook of their interest; yet his chief attention was
engrossed by floriculture. In that his enthusiasm be-
came almost feminine in its passion. How often have I
watched his progress through our Hall when he sup-
posed himself unnoticed, after his attention had been
solicited to some particular specimen of fruit! With
what certainty, if almost unconsciously, he would
draw back to admire or criticise the Rose or Clem-
atis from which he had been temporarily diverted!

The Rose, with its petals and fragrance long since
faded to dust. The gracious presence awaits burial;
but as spring revives, shall not the Rose renew its bud and
bloom? From the analogy of nature we derive Hope,
which may not be superfluous to those of ample Faith.

"And the evening and the morning were the first
day." In the morning, upon that fairest of all De-
cember days, he was gathering the fruits of diligence
whereof he had sown the seed. At noon I met him,
and was literally astonished at the expression of his
countenance. The light that shone there might well
excite comment from adepts in psychology, in view
of the subsequent fatality. His cordiality was marked;

10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

and he playfully invited a comparison of ages, re-
markin<^ his surprise when he found the tale slight-
ly to his advantage. Possibly his memory was
more tenacious than m}- own ; recalling how we
dwelt togetiier under the same roof when we first es-
sayed our respective families.

In the evening — and he was prone upon that bed
wherefrom was to be no awakening this side of the
celestial Eden. And in that goodly garden we hor-
ticulturists should be content to leave him, in the con-
genial fellowship of Wilder, Moore and Lovell, who
preceded him but so recently.

On motion of George E. Francis, V. P., it was
unanimously voted that the proceedings be extended
upon the records, and that a copy be engrossed and
transmitted to the family of our deceased President.

At the Annual Meeting of the AVorcester County
Horticultural Society holden in the Hall of Flora on
Wednesdci}^, November 7th, A. D. l^SS, Secretary
Lincoln stated that he had received a letter which he
would ask leave to read :

"Worcester, Nov. Gth, 1888.
"Edward W. Lincoln, Esq.,

** Secretary of the Worcester County

Horticultural Society.
"Dear Sir:

"We send you herewith a Portrait of the
late Francis H. Dewey, in accordance with his ex-
pressed wish that the same should be presented to

1888,] TRANSACTIONS. 11

the Worcester County Horticultural Society, of which
he was so long the President, and in whose welfare
he took so deep an interest.

"We also inclose the amount of the bequest made
by him to the Society, in the following terms : —

"'I give to the Worcester County Horticultural So-
ciety the sum of One Thousand Dollars, the same to be
invested and the income thereof to be applied to the
purchase of books for its library.'

"Yours respectfully,

"FRANCIS H. DEWEY,
"JOHJN^ C. DEWEY,
"GEORGE T. DEWEY,

"Executors of the will of Francis H. Dewey."

Mr. Lincoln added that it had occurred to him, upon
receipt of the communication, that a recognition of it,
however official, would acquire grace from being timely.
He had therefore taken it upon himself to prepare some
Resolutions that seemed to him appropriate and which
he would submit for their acceptance : —

Resolved : By the Worcester County Horticultural
Society, upon this first meeting since the decease of
their late President, Francis Henshaw Dewey, that
its members would place upon record their deep sense
of the loss sustained by them, in common with the gen-
eral interests of Horticulture throughout the County.

Resolved : That we adopt and reiterate as our own
the expressions of mournful sensibility uttered by our
Trustees at the very time of the sad event.

12 WORCESTER COUNTr HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

Besolved : That we recognize with especial gratitude
the new evidence of his continuous interest in the So-
ciety, in the provision by himself of his portrait, to be
suspended in our Hall in the goodly company of his life-
long associates.

Resolved : That in accepting his generous bequest of
a sum of money, we desire to show our thankfulness in
the most appropriate way ; and that we therefore
solemnly pledge the fiiith of the Society to ''invest the
same and to apply the income thereof to the purchase of
books for our library."

Resolved : That a copy of these resolutions be trans-
mitted to the family of our late President ; and that the
resolutions, together with the record of the action and
expressions of sentiment by the Trustees, at the time of
his decease, be published in the next issue of the Trans-
actions of the Society.

On motion of Salisbury, F. P., Voted : to adopt the
Resolutions, and furthermore to instruct the Finance
Committee to keep the principal of the sum intact ; to
expend only the income from it ; and that the bequest
be known as the

A Record : Attest :

EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN,

8ec7^etary.

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

A. D. 1888.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the Members of the

WoKCESTEK County Hokticultural Society :

The death of President Dewey, occurring suddenly and when
it did, prechided the possibility of calling the Society together to
take appropriate action prior to his burial. There was barelj'
time to convene the Trustees. The proceedings of that Board
are extended at length upon its Records and were published in
full by the contemporary press. Tour cordial concurrence in
their tenor and tone is not doubted. Tou are however advised
of what your Trustees could not know, that the interest in this
Society which was so consistently manifested throughout his whole
life did not end with his mortal existence. The fund that he
bequeathed for the increase of your Library will supply a lasting
and visible memorial of his concern for your permanent, best
welfare.

" As for man his days are as grass ; as a flower of the field, so
he flourisheth."

" For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the place
thereof shall know it no more."

But if we can never again lay eyes upon our late President ;
if the cheery recognition is missing, and the prompt decision
fails ; yet, thanks to the sympathy of those to whom he was
nearest and dearest, his almost speaking likeness shall grace our
walls so long as this Hall may endure. For so much let U3 be

14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICTILTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

duly thankful ! For the rest, we may as well leave it with the
inscrutable Providence that decrees and limits human existence.

Our Hall is in fair condition and has returned an average reve-
nue during the past year. But members who wish a larger ap-
propriation for premiums, at our Exhibitions must bear in mind
that depreciation of improved real estate increases in proportion
to its age, and that we have no riglit to expect an exception in our
own case. The mastic upon our front wall has fallen off in
patches ; and, at best, presents but a sliabby appearance. Located
upon one of our most important streets, where all public pro-
cessions must necessarily parade, neither our pecuniary interest
nor the reputation of the Society, will suffer us to let Horticul-
tural Hall waste into discredit. It now has a supreme recom-
mendation in its convenient site, its facility of access from the
street, and yet more in the entire immunity from danger, in the
event of senseless panic. But others may attempt to rival, if
they cannot hope to surpass, such signal advantages. And,
therefore it is the decided conviction of your Committee on
Finance, that every dollar which can be spared should go to con-
stitute a Repairs-Fund, from which, in due time, may be defrayed
the cost of such alterations and improvements as shall be found
indispensable. Tlie ordinary work of the Society would thus go
on without interruption ; while the saving annually, if small in
itself, would in the long run, increase to a sum adequate for the
specitic purpose.

The taxes upon our stores, whercfrom are derived the means by
which we "advance the Science and encourage and improve the
' Practice of Horticulture,'" are rapidly attaining the magnitude
of former years. Our revenue from an investment in Real Estate
is all that enables us to carry out the purposes for which we were
chartered. It might be expedient when any alterations are found
to be inevitable, to construct a pious gymnasium in the basement
of our building, with a flying trapeze for devout development.
If a holy retreat might be added, for which our attic would be
well adapted, wherein to indulge in solenm meditation upon the
conundrum, " Were There Mosquitoes in Eden ? " condition and

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 15

theory would accord ; the austere virtue of assessors relaxing
and exact and equal justice, for once, being done.

Our Exhibitions were held, throughout the year, in substan-
tial accordance with the Schedule. Occasionally an important
display was deferred, to meet the imperative necessities of the
case — notably thus in the matter of the annual Kose Show. No
season is remembered by the veterans on your Committee of
Arrangements, wherein an assignment by averages (if it may be
so described ? ) was of such little worth. A flower or fruit was
invited upon a specified day ; since, for three years out of four
one, if not both, had been in perfection at that time. It was of
no sort of use, A. D. 1888; everything that grew to assurance of
petal, or pulp being seized with a fit of procrastination, and put-
ting in its appearance some two weeks after its appointed date.
Long experience, however, had convinced your Committee of the
futility of recasting the schedule to meet temporary exigencies ;
the attempt to do which usually results in making a bad matter
worse.

The two opening Exhibitions, in March and April successively,
were of signal excellence and greeted, as they deserved, by ad-
miring throngs. The prospect for a display of Flowers, or aught
else animate or inanimate, looked forlorn enough as that fearful
blizzard was piling up its fathomless drifts. Nevertheless Holden
and Leicester came on time, and Whitinsville (is not the ' ville '
surplusage ? ) once more manifested, under diSiculties, that in-
terest to which this Society was ever deeply indebted. No such
physical obstacles confronted us in April ; and the Exhibition,
for that month, was without drawback of any kind. But there-
after your Secretary feels that results justified his former con-
tention. That there is not enough from which to achieve a
creditable display, each week, commencing in the middle of May,
as we did A. D. 1888. True, — artfully disposed, something may
be effected with the refuse of parlor or conservatory ; nor is it
denied that parsneps can be exhumed that are well worth eating.
But the truth is we are or ought to be planting at that particular
juncture ; and a Horticultural Society should be the last to
require its members to gather where they have not strewn. There

16 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

is a time for all things ; and the closest students of Nature are
keen to learn and frank to confess that nothing is to be gained
by an effort to hurry her moods.

The continuous, and now almost entire, withdrawal of Profes-
sional Florists from active cooperation in the work of our Society,
has been a marked feature in the Horticultural season just closed.
Whose is the loss and whose the gain ! it might be impossible to
apportion, precisely. It is certain that all honorable efforts have
been exhausted to suit professionals, in our schedules ; the fram-
ing of which, for years, has been largely entrusted to them. They
have also been signally honored by tiie almost exchisive choice of
judges from their ranks; — at the risk, not always nor wholly
visionary, of having the floral awards determined upon lines
almost strictly technical. Yet all has been of no permanent
avail ; one dropping off after another without so much as saying
— by your leave? or even after making such an exceptional
display as should depress the remaining members with a convic-
tion of hopeless inferiority.

Your Secretary can advance nothing in adequate explanation.
Should it be said that fault was found with the judgments of
award, it may be replied that the time never was when the grum-
bler did not exist ; and that those at least, whose own decisions
had been unreasonably challenged, would not be so craven as to
desert their successors — fellow-sufferers in injustice. Is it not
more probable that the Professional Florist is gradually forced
to recognize, what has been manifest to your Secretary, for
long, — the absolute incompatibility between the highest success
in his occupation and the attainment of equal prominence at
Horticultural Exhibitions ! His profession, and that comprises
his entire plant, — is devoted primarily to the gain of a livelihood
for himself, and family. Our Exhibitions aim at perfection. But
he must make merchandise of his best specimens, if wanted, for
shall not my lady have the nosegay upon which her fancy is set !
Granted, — that he grows profusely, — by acres, if you please.
Still, the more land under cultivation, in Floriculture particu-
larly,— the less time can he call his own, if he would not salute
insect-foes, weeds, or witch-grass, as his conceded masters.

1888.1 TRANSACTIONS. 17

In opposition to this view of the matter, may be adduced the
very general display, by Professional Florists, at that grotesque
horticultural simulacruin^ offered annually, as a dissolving view,
at the best paying point in New England. But this fact does
not, of itself, adequately meet the contention. The Florist may
have gone there upon the speculation that lures the country
clergyman through the slums of New York. Ah ! exclaimed
Madame, la Marquise, clasping her hands pathetically, " if they
only knew how delicious is a little sin .^" But what must have
been the surprise to those precisians who were wont to insist, in
these Halls, that each flower must be judged by certain fixed
rules of excellence, to find themselves adrift upon a shoreless
sea where Vegetables floated in a special scow ; Floriculture pad-
dled a canoe of its own ; and Horticulture, as expounded by
wreckers to whom the saints never imparted their faith, shrivelled
until it was reduced to a mere equivalent and synonym for Pom-
ology! And yet this Society, — associate with Mooke and
Wilder, as of Hipley and Earle, — was urged to volunteer —
jyarticej^s crimiiiis — in such an outrage upon the fixed land-
marks and established classification of an immemorial Science !

When this Society was organized, there were in Worcester,
none other than amateur florists. They were found amply able
to show all the flowers requisite for a first-class exhibition and a
fair allowance of that human nature which appears to be insep-
arable from such occasions. And they were shown by those
zealous women without hope of reward; since, for years, the net
returns from exhibitions went to form the nucleus of the fund
that, augmented by the bequest of Daniel Waldo, subsequently
enabled the erection of this Hall. Preferences were oflicially
expressed and the palm of decided preeminence assigned by ap-
propriate committees ; but no one was made suddenly richer by
gains from voluntary contributions to our tables.

Curiously enough, while the above was written, and as if to
illustrate with what confidence Horticulture may rely upon the
amateur now, as of yore ; a number of Garden and Forest comes
to hand in which occurs the following suggestive statement :

" The extent to which Horticulture is pursued for pleasure
merely, in Belgium, is shown by the membership list of the

18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

Ghent Horticultural Society — ' Harmonie.' In the city of
Ghent alone it counts 2,000 members, and of them only 30 are
professional gardeners."

The Renaissance^ as it were, of Herbaceous Perennials, and
the increasing appreciation of their beauty, should encourage us
in the present and stimulate to greater effort in the future. They
are the flowers of any who choose. Hardy and handsome, —
what more can be desired ? Whether you look to plant or shrub, —
you may stock a park or crowd Ji garden. An absurd fancy for
bedding shams, conceived in the cupidity of professional garden-
in<r, relegated them for a while into a neglect that had almost
become oblivion. Returning sense and a better taste recalls them
to our service, and lo ! Forsythia, Syringa, Althaja, Hydrangea,
in their succession ; and Rose, Iris, Pteony, Lily, Phlox, in such
gorgeous and multiform glory as almost to dazzle while it at-
tracts. Be it ever our policy, as it was that of the founders, to
take learners by the hand, helping their first feeble steps. If
these Exhibitions, so generously thrown open to a public that
taxes us upon the slender resources whereby alone they are sus-
tained, are worth anything save as a convenient way of distrib-
uting net income, it is because of the object-teaching that arouses
interest and challenges rivalry. The curious of either sex see
what others have done. Cannot they do as well ? The thought
haunts them ; and sooner, or later, if such thought was not
wholly aimless, the result will be conspicuous in these Halls.

So long as we allow ourselves to be content with the award
and distribution of money — premiums, as our highest ultimate
aim and purpose, perhaps, we achieve a measurable success. The
quality of the Fruit and Vegetables for sale in the markets of
this city, contrasted with those of yore upon which they show
such a marked advance, is the actual evidence of what has been
done under the kindly auspices of this Society. Shall such lim-
ited achievement continue to be our restricted object ? A. D.
1892, but four short years hence, a Half-Century will have
elapsed since this Society was incorporated,

"For the purpose of advancing the Science and encouraging
and improving the Practice of Horticulture."

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 19

By those who are spared to see that day shall it be said that
the God Terminus, or even Pallida Mors^ called a halt to Flora,
Ceres, and Pomona ! Or shall not that date rather be commem-
orated by the new departure which, recognizing the vigorous
state of the corporation, shall prepare to assume the obligations
resulting therefrom ? What mean those Lectures on Botany,
continued witli so little pecuniary support, but encouraged by a
large and zealous attendance? Why has this Horticultural So-
ciety naught to do with them, or their like ! And why, indiffer-
ent or neglectful, can we not perceive the adverse comment to
which we subject ourselves through our penuriousness or sloth !
I offer no specific recommendation. But in what manner can we
better crown our fifty years of active and useful existence, than
by the inauguration of some method or plan whereby our facili-
ties and resources shall be rendered tributary to that endeavor,
more or less sharply defined, that aims to establish here in
Worcester, upon broad foundations, a complete and thorough
University !

Your Secretary^ as he has never suffered you to forget, believes
in striking every obvious and possible shackle from inter-national,
as well as inter-state, trade. Commerce thrives in the enjoyment
of vigorous life, within the wide confines of the Republic. The
car that carries a freight of boots or shoes — perhaps bunting !
to Illinois, returning with a load of corn, or wheat-flour. If our
Farmers can grow maize in economical rivalry with their brethren
of the Sucker State, as some contend and claim to demonstrate,
how much more should they be able to maintain their standing,
when their competitors are handicapped by the cost of trans-
portation across a trackless ocean ! At present. Apples command
a small price — ;the fruit being plentiful, its juice — sinful. Why
not make unto ourselves friends of the Mammon of Unrighteous-
ness ! Why not entice John Bull to partake of the iniquity !
thereby filling our pockets by a sort of vicarious atonement; —
the scape-^oa^ being the Ijull aforesaid ! It may be that some
fingers still smart from contact with that fire. Other some may
dread to make the test for themselves. But that Duncan C. Fell
built up for himself a profitable trade, in a single variety of

20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

American Apples ; that he estabh'shed the character of that variety
npon such a plane that, throughout all England, the name of
Newtown Pippin is a synonym for excellence ; and that the
Newtown Pippin itself is inferior to numerous kinds that suggest
themselves, at tirst thought, to an American Pomologist ; are not
these all facts of indubitable verity, — that should be pregnant
with suggestion in this very crown and plentitude of an exuberant
fruiting ? In this year of grace, 1888, Worcester County has
more Apples than can be cared for at home ; however
many may be eaten, [dried, or ground in wicked mills. Eng-
land lacks in precisely similar measure. She never did, —
probably could not, grow our varieties, whose excellence she is
beginning to appreciate ; and of such as approve themselves con-
genial to her climate and soil the imminent deficiency is greater
than usual. Commerce, however, implies reciprocity. There
must be a return cargo, otherwise the voyage will be profitless if
it does not involve a certain loss. In times not so far remote
Coal was free from import and was brought over in ballast. But
Massachusetts has been whipped to hunt in the same political
leash with Pennsylvania, and, in each division of the net spoils
of their chase, usually gets the option of a buzzard, — her mate
reserving the turkey. No axiom can be plainer than that if we
decline to obtain what we want, by barter, we shall have to pay
for it with cash. Neither, individuals, nor a community, can
endure an incessant, unremunerative drain upon their resources.
Live and let live ! is the essence of true Christianity, for which
"Root hog, or die!" can furnish but a poor substitute. The
Home Market is close at hand. Are there not, within hearing,
Pomologists who wish that its area and capacity were not quite
so restricted? That an extra wagon load should not cause a glut !
The development of the international trade in Fruit, of late
years, has been noteworthy. Leaving out of all account the
Banana, with which few would care to dispense, let us confine
ourselves to the commerce in Apples. Said the Anglo American
Times, awhile since: —

" The business of exporting Apples is increasing. Three years
ago, 220,000 barrels were shi])ped from New York ; in 1885
302,000 barrels, and last year 349,000 barrels."

1888.] TRANSACTIONS.

ReviewiDg the apple-shipping season, not so loi>g a^o^ A. -^
Lombard's Sons sum up, as follows : — ^s,^;^ ^

" This shows that the total exports from the United States and
Canada for 1887-8, were 608,588 barrels as against 811,410
barrels for 1886-7. Tiie shipments from Boston amounted to
164,268 barrels, against 306,693 for the previous season.
About one-half of the shipments were made to Liverpool."

And being at Liverpool, the seaport of Western England, the
condition that confronts the Pomologists of Worcester County
is why an irrational theory should be allowed to prevent the
barter of our fruit for some of those superb woollens that our
" Infant Industries" refuse to produce until they are weaned per
force !

Of course, it cannot be necessary to remind this Society that
exports will be larger upon the bearing year ; and that 1887-8
could not be included within tliat category, which will account
for the temporary falling-oii in shipments. The Home Market
for the produce of our orchards we possess now ; and like the
Wheat-growers, we find it insufficient. We cannot sell our Ap-
ples to Pennsylvania; but yet we cannot do without Coal! Yet
Coal is a cash article, like a receipt for Taxes. Do not some in
this audience feel the chafing from that shackle, forged under the
stress of a military necessity, and perpetuated at the behest of a
political alliance ? If you can contrive to enlarge your market
so as to get 25 or 50 cents more per barrel, for your fruit; in the
name of common sense what should keep the shrewd Yankee from
pocketing such gain ! His own labor with that of his family
is Home Industry. Yet that industry is at every turn, subjected
to burdens grievous to be borne ; which, in their very levy,
are an imposition upon himself, of all men. Bj^ ihe sweat of
his brow is commerce built up, whether on land, or water ; and
as he prospers, so should our ships vex the seas. Of all men the
Terrseculturist is bound to insist upon the widest market. " By
their fruits ye shall know them ! " might, under rational legisla-
tion, be stenciled, in Covent Garden, upon the Apple barrels of
Eames, Rice, or Wyman.

22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

But even for supplying the Home Market only, sound judg-
ment and fair precaution will never come amiss. The man who
can reserve his fruit until there is a demand, will get the profit
withheld from him who forces the market. Hence the benefit of
cold storage ; which, after all, is but the application, upon a
larger scale, of the methods by which Newton and Ripley were
wont to keep until Spring, and then exhibit, to your surprise,
those Pears of perfection. A review of the market, April 3,
1887, covering the close of an abundant season, will clearly illus-
trate what may come to those who can and do wait : —

" For Apples the market continues firm, with the supply lighter
than usual at this time of the year. The fact of the matter is
that Apples are well cleared up ; and it is safe to say that all
concerned, from the grower to the buyer of round lots to sell
again, have made at least a fair profit on Apples this 3'ear. The
market is firm at $3.25 « $3.50 for good State of Maine Bald-
wins ; while choice have been sold at higher prices. There is
some Massachusetts and Western fruit offered at less figures.
It is noted that there are fewer Bussets offering this season,
than usual; and good bright fruit of this class would bring
good prices. There is but little doing in the way of exporting
Apples, in fact, there are but few to export. The receipts for
the week were 2,092 barrels ; last year, 5,563 barrels."

As to the prospects for the export trade in Apples, the present
season, the circular of Woodhall & Co., of Liverpool, recites
that, —

" After a late cold Spring, followed by a miserable Summer,
returns are only what might be expected, and are the most un-
favorable received for many years. Of 146 reports giving the
crop as under average, with many it means that there are none
at all, especially in the most important sections. The weather
continues most unseasonable; and it is probable that when the
time for gathering arrives, present estimates must be again
reduced, and the quality will be found most inferior. Advices
from the continent are also unfavorable, except some small
sections of France, which will not affect our market.

Under these circumstances it will be seen that England will be
prepared to take large quantities of foreign apples, and should
the American and Canadian crops (which are the must appre-
ciated) be good, there will be an immense demand at satisfactory
prices."

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 23

The columns of the Chi'onicle and Garden^ ^ving upon our
Library tables, bear concurrent testimony to an unpropitious
season and a sadly deticient yield from the English orchards.

Soft-witted enthusiasm should find no place in the consideration
of this matter. Actual facts, clearly determined and plainly
stated, are its only proper solution. Competition presses closely
in every market abroad or at home ; and the writer has never
forgotten that the orchards of Nova Scotia maintain a most
formidable rivalry with our own. It is but a few weeks since
a most intelligent correspondent of the Sunday Spy thus wrote
and predicted, with some degree of extravagance perhaps, but
yet upon a solid basis of fact :

" The Annapolis and Gaspereau valleys contain about 600
square miles of cultivable land. At the present time one-
tenth of this area, or nearly 40,000 acres, is planted with
apple trees. Almost a half-million l>arrels of Gravenstein,
Baldwin, King of Tompkins, Nonpareil,. Russets, Ribston Pip-
pins, and other varieties of apples are now annually yielded
and exported. Over three fourths of this area is yet in
young trees. From 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 barrels of apples
will certainly be raised annually in these two valleys within ten
years' time. They are proven to be the finest and hardiest
varieties in the world, and the demand is never met. In the fall,
American buyers fill the region, pairchasing 1,000-barrel lots.
Experience has proven that the European markets are just begin-
ning to know this fruit region, and, as every barrel which can
now be secured is taken there, the competition between American
and English buyers will always insure the Annapolis valley
apple raisers from $3 to $5 per barrel in gold. The method of
English shipment is highly interesting and is additional good
luck to Nova Scotia apple farmers. He has only to pack his
apples carefully, stencil and brand his name upon it, mark it
" John Doe," or " John Roc, London," and deliver it at any depot
of the valley railway. If he sends 100 or 1,000 in this way he
has no further trouble or anxiety. His apples go direct to
Halifax. There steamship agents, who are practically agents of
London buyers, care for them. In three weeks' tiu)e the ap])le
grower receives by mail exchange on London for the a])ples he
has left at the station platform, and the price is the higliest paid
in the world. These (ionditions are giving a groat impetus to
apple culture in this wonderful valley. About 40 trees are
planted to the acre, and at maturity yield from three to seven

24 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

barrels of apples, for which never less than $3, and often more
than $5, per barrel is secured. The whole valley is a vast
orchard, and every farmer is rich, or rapidly getting rich.

^ ^ ^ v^ ¥^ ¥^ ^

"In wandering through the valley an interesting reflection came
to me, and I wondered whether it might be so to others. That
was that wherever apples grow a kindly, sturdy and progressive
people are ever to be found. Think it over, and the idea grows
npon one. Great houses, greater barns, fine stock, ample compe-
tence, large provision for all seasons and needs, sturdy ways,
sensible thrift, genial neighborings, and all that dear procession
of country-side life that has vigor and cheer, with Autumn's noble
housings and stores and Winter's large and generous delights,
marshal the thought in memory's bravest trappings."

Are not " great houses, greatter barns, fine stock, sturdy ways,
genial neighborhoods " to be found not alone in the valley of the
Gaspereau ; but as well along the intervales of Half-Wa}' River,
the Blackstone and the Nashua ? Hath Kome indeed " lost her
breed of noble bloods?" If so, — how largely may the blame be
attributed to that celibac}" which exacts yearly increase from
flock and herd, but withholds its own tribute to the primal law
lest haply, " his children should be like olive-plants round about
his table ! " The modern gospel at too many a Yankee Farm-
stead is, alas ! not " happy is the man that hath his quiver full
of them ; " but can a vicarious procreation be maintained by
virtue of a pedigree accredited to this Jersey heifer — that South-
down ram !

Yet in this, as in all otlier matters of earthly concern, the fittest
shall surely survive. And, that the victory may be our own,
needs but a tithe of that energy which is expended without
grumbling, in every other branch of Terrseculture. The tree
must not be suflfered to exhaust its vitality by a crop of ten or
twelve barrels in full maturity. The fruit must be thinned ; and
although the number of specimens may be diminished, the yield
will be ample, while tlie returns from it are proportionately
greater. You may say that this implies hard work ! but how
much profit did you ever derive from laziness ? You can not
harvest your rye while swinging in a hammock. If a cloud
threatens, you hurry and get it under cover, even though it should

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 25

chance to be Sunday on Olean, or Mountain, Streets. But when
the caterpillar weaves his web, you vow that you will remove it
at once. You don't, however, for it is only an apple tree ; nor
do you interrupt the cankerworrei* in his work of devastation.
You will plough, harrow, cultivate, even hand-hoe maize ; and all
for a crop of grain that, computing your own labor, it is ques-
tionable if you could not buy cheaper. But you grudge any of
that toil in your Orchard, which is neglected as usual. The vigor
of the branches may be sapped by sprouts: its trunks enveloped
with moss or scale — a sure harbor for insects, — its fecundity may
be as excessive as the specimens are knurly and poor ; but — was
not such ever your habit? And do you not hold your own at
the Agricultural Exhibitions ? — where easy-going judges are " to
your faults a little blind."

1 would not weary your good nature ; but I cannot be patient
with that sort of pomological maliiigery which neglects an
orchard until it becomes worthless, and then destroys it because
it yields no return. Nothing else within the broad domain of
Terrfeculture is so treated. The man who will almost break his
back thinning out turnips, or weeding the fragrant onion, con-
siders it intolerable hardship to reduce the excessive yield of his
apple trees. The work is cleanly, can be done in an upright
posture, between seed-time and harvest. But — my father never

*The Cankerworm Disgrace.— a good apple tree, well established in bearing,
if estimated by the income which may be derived from it, is worth from $30 to $100
and more. In other words, the individual trees in a good orchard are worth as much
as the individual animals in a good herd of cattle. Owners of herds spare neither
time nor trouble, nor outlay in money, in order to keep their herds healthful ; but
owners of orchards stand by and do nothing, while the cankerworm destroys their
trees. It is a shame. The eticctive remedy, spraying with a solution of one pound
of Paris green or London purple to 100 gallons of water, is inexpensive. The use of
these poisons requires care; but long experience with them in fighting the potato bug
makes it easy to exercise the requisite care in saving the orchards. The apathy with
which we submit to ravages of the cankerworm would lead a foreign observer, igno-
rant of our character, to infer either that we are not sufficiently intelligent to meas-
ure the loss, or else that we are fatalists, like the Mohammedans, and accept the
cankerworm as a dispensation of Providence, which it would be useless and perhaps
impious to oppose. We know better. Our people are neither unintelligent nor
fatalistic. The trouble comes from ultra conservatism. "We have always been used
to letting the orchard take care of itself, and it is hard for us to realize that fruit
trees, as much as domestic animals, may require and Avill reward watchful protec-
tion. There are times, however, when conservatism becomes disgraceful, and I think
this is one of them.— ^m/tersf, Mass., cor. Homestead.

26 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

did 80 and why should 1? Can you not see that the glut in the
market, whereof you complain, is caused by this over-production
of good, indifferent, or positively bad, which offend the eye and
repel the taste ? " There is room enough at the top ! " said
Daniel Webster to the young lawyer who sought encouragement.
More now than ever do men desire the best of everything. And
he who supplies it, without evasion or fraud, will surely com-
mand the success that he deserves, though at times the reward
may seem slow of coming.

For the pomologists of this Society, at least, tliere can be no
valid excuse. Wliat they might accomplish can be predicated
from their past and present acliieveinents. They go to Boston,
or to Springlicld ; and wliether fronri the banks of the Charles or
Connecticut, return laden with spoils. The Massachusetts Hor-
ticultural Society admits their evident superiority, and the Bay
State Agricultural concedes its supreme awai-ds. Why then not
compete with the farmers along the valley of the Gaspereau for
more lucrative returns ? Shall we confess inferiority to the Blue-
Nose ; own that for skill in culture and honest}^ in marketing,
we have at last met our superiors ! Home Industry ! prate less
about it, but illustrate it in practice ! Rest assured that in this,
as in all other material affairs, where there is a will there is a
way ! And that, if we elect to sit with folded hands, waiting
for the gods to provide ; there is no good reason why the orch-
ardists of Nova Scotia, who prefer to work out their own salva-
tion, should not reap quick and rich reward from their assiduous
labor.

" The spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy
vintage," wailed Jeremiah, of old ; and the townsman and granger
of this latter day may well echo his lamentation. There is a
law against Truancy ; and Truancy is the commonest offence.
There are statutes prohibiting Theft ; and like most prohibitory
statutes, they are more honored in the breach than the observ-
ance. " Thou shalt not steal ! " is the burden of many a lesson
at the Sunday-School ; blazoning its own suggestive legend upon
the tablets that adorn the walls of the sanctuary. But the small
boy, — and the children of a larger growth, — approve themselves

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 27

equal to the emergency. It is a theory that confronts them — not a
condition. Their name is legion and they are gregarious, — prowl-
ing in gangs. Their keen sight espies the Hed Astrachan from
afar and they take it for granted that Mrs. Green has gone to
church. So the smallest, — who has a pair of shoes, and a whole
seat to his trousers, creeps stealthily along the division fence.
Just as he has beckoned to his fellows ; spirits more evil than
himself in that, with like appetite, they have less daring ; the voice
of your Secretary shouting the war-whoop of Pomona, falls
upon their affrighted ears and

" The wicked flee when no man pursueth 1 "

Thus " conscience doth make cowards of us all."

It was at three o'clock in the afternoon of a week-day when
the orchard of Charles L. Fierce was cleaned out. The tale may
not be exact ; but that will be a safe reckoning which puts it well
nigh upon seven boys, three girls, and two capacious baskets.
They were not dainty; if immature, Gravensteins were worth
carrying off and green Bartletts satisfied the cravings of those
more fastidious.

As for the charming Roses of Dea. Griffin, — have not the
foot-walks of Cedar street been strewn with their wasted petals ?
What we do not possess, ourselves, no one else shall cultivate and
enjoy is the gospel that these imps of malicious mischief are
suffered to practice, as they prey, without ceasing.

If the turn of the Granger comes later, with none the less
certainty docs the Assyrian descend upon his fold. The average
bummer is lazy; so he employs a team to convey himself to the
scene of proposed depredation and to haul back his spoil. When
nuts are ripe, ponderous mauls must be carried along to jar the
tree to the inevitable ruin of its trunk. For the wounds caused
by the abrasion of their bark surely, if slowly, result in the decay
and death of nut-bearing trees. Tliis variety of hoodlum elects
Sunday for his raids; since lie can thus elude the observation of
his wife or mother who, on tliat day at least, is not toiling to
keep the breath of life in his worthless carcase. Besides, the
odds are that the Granger maintains the old-fashioned custom of
" going to meeting," and will therefore be off guard. And over

28 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

and beyond all, — larceny and trespass, on Sunday, are infected
with a delicious taint that carries with it a peculiar charm of its
own. So they swarm ; for in their mere number is immunity.
And if hordes are but strong enough, theft ceases to be a crime,
being transmuted into, as it were, a simple maluin prohibitum.

There is but one unpardonable sin ! under the modern electric
light, — and that is Thirst. Therefore must lice be suftered in the
Hop-yard, and Barley withhold its golden grain, that Beer may
no longer be brewed and bottled for the minister and his predes-
tined saints. To that end should the apple be surrendered to the
cankerworm and codling-moth that, the fruit being spoiled, there
may be no more cider ; and lionest vinegar cease to be used upon
beans. Pears shall be allowed to blight, at hazard ; that perry
may never again be tolerated, save perchance by the Committee
at an Agricultural hippodrome. " Property is Theft ! " shrieked
the Frenchman ; and he has never lacked disciples to reduce his
dogma to practice. "Property is Crime!" yell the Pharasees,
when the Grape is plucked from the vine and its juice sealed up
in a bottle. What wonder that, with such laxity of thought and
absurdity of logic, men of only common intelligence should be
thrown oft' their balance ; should confound the distinction be-
tween right and wrong; and should conclude that there is more
truth than poetry in the old distich whose burden was ever

" That they should get who have the power ;
And they should keep, who can."

Nothing novel, of manifest excellence, was shown in our Halls
during the season just past. Old and approved varieties, whether
in the domain of Ceres, Flora, or Pomona, maintained their es-
tablished rank despite the unpropitious season. Yet their names
were as familiar as household words and their ])reeminence
universally conceded. Time, however, may be said to have set
the seal of approval to the Ansault and Carle's Bergamot,
among Pears; and those varieties of recent introduction, should
now take first rank. It is plain that the Ansault matures later
than has been supposed: specimens gathered on the 9th October
being one-third larger than those wliich gained the award on the
6th September previous. Juicy as the Belle Lucrative, it has

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 29

more character than that well-known variety, while equally pro-
lific; and has the merit, whereof the Lucrative is signally deficient,
of not rotting at the core. Your Secretary has been cautious,
heretofore, in expressing a decided opinion of this variety, as he
first introduced it to 3'our notice. He has no hesitation now, in
pronouncing it, for those who love pears because of intrinsic
merit, a rare acquisition.

As much might be said of EarWs JBergamot^ did it not inlierit
in measure more or less qualified, the tendency of the Lucrative
to rot at the core. Otherwise, it is of marked excellence and
approves itself worthy to bear the honored name of him by whom
it was originated. The Belle Lucrative has yielded much to
cross-fertilization. But none of its offspring have ever shown so
many and decided good qualities as that which is traced to this
union with the Autumn Bergamot, For its own sake and that
the variety created by John Milton Earle may not be wholly lost,
our members should see to it that its scions are widely diffused
and that its perpetuation is made an object of local pride and
care.

And yet the postulate which assumes that there has been noth-
ing new, of signal high quality, to challenge your scrutiny and
favor, may be too sweeping. For it would exclude numerous
apples of recent origin, of which some, commended when first
shown, have been decided to merit encouragement and more
extended trial. Notable among these are the seedlings of our
associate, Thomas A. Dawson, and one which, during the current
Autumn, was placed upon our tables by Mr. John Hough. Both
climate and soil of Worcester County have approved themselves
congenial to the apple. The Baldwin was a sport of chance.
Shall there therefore never be another happy accident ? Ensur-
ing to our enjoyment and profit a fruit of fairer appearance,
richer flavor, and of less exhaustive fecundity ? Its develop-
ment miglit exact attention and patience, design and careful
semination being admitted within our category. It would not
answer to let cattle browse them. But such a variety, maturing
in Winter, is wanted in both the Home and Foreign Market ; and
fame and fortune will be the just reward of the man by whom
it is produced.

30 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1888.

There was little complaint of Pear-Blight during the past
year. Shall we therefore conclude that there were no Bacteria
to do harm, or instead that they had lapsed into "innocuous
desuetude ? " Perhaps Science will exclaim, in view of our
comparative exemption from this dreaded scourge, for the season
just past, — " so much the worse for the facts ! " But to those of
us who prefer proof to assumption, or dogmatism ; and who
almost incline to faith in the periodicity of disease; food for
rejQection is supplied in the significant fact of the recovery, by
many old favorites among pears, of their pristine health and
vigor. Benrre Diel and Flemish Beauty were almost abandoned, —
so sure were they to crack, becoming worthless. And yet, of
late years, specimens of either variety have been shown in our
Hall, of unsurpassed excellence, whether regard was paid to size,
symmetry, or beauty of appearance. Man had accomplished
nothing to effect a cure. Was Nature idle ?

The failure of the Gkape to mature its fruit has been a serious
disappointment and loss. So unpropitious was the season that
the wonder is that any clusters should have become edible, — let
alone fit to eat. In these closing days of October, the Diana
hangs half-colored, where it never before went back upon a confi-
dent faith. Under similar conditions the Barry, Lindlcy, and
Massasoit of the Rogers Hybrids ; and the Brighton, of more
recent origin ; were the only varieties that did not set the children's
teeth on edge. Of those, especially, persistent trial warrants the
statement that where they can be grown so as to be shielded
from the earlier frosts, they will be sure to repay cultivation with
a crop thoroughly ripe. The broad jet to a modern dwelling-
house answers the requirement admirably : if the building is of
brick, the warmth of the walls will be a decided advantage. In
a garden, where the vines are trained upon an upright trellis, a
six-inch board will supply an adequate coping. Glass would be
better where economy is not urgent. That the Grape can be
grown, and well-ripened, almost anywhere in Worcester County,
has been fully demonstrated. So delicious a fruit is worth all
the pains that its cultivation may require. True, original sin
lies latent in its juice ! But then how easy to suspend the laws

1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 31

of Nature, and arrest fermentation and total depravity by a
simultaneous prohibition !

Moreover, new kinds are continually developed. If no actual
advance upon the lona, in point of quality, is yet manifest, it is
certainly not from lack of experiment. But we could well afford
to be content with that grand variety, were it endowed with a
greater degree of hardiness. Let us wish success to all efforts,
by whomsoever made, to produce the Grape of the Future ! And
until that ideal is in actual possession, let us do the best that we
can, under the skies of New England, with the many excellent
varieties that we already enjoy. A single adverse season should
not paralj'ze a generation.

All which is respectfully submitted,

by
EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN,

Secretary.
Horticultural Hall,

Worcester^ Worcester Oo.^ Ifass.,
7 November, A. D. 1888.

REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

To THE Members of the

Worcester County Horticultural Society :

The Librarian, iu submitting his annual report, has nothing of
special interest to mention. The Library has been consulted at
the room quite as much as usual, and books taken to the homes
of members to the number of about 300, all of which have been
returned excepting a few that can be brought in at call.

The condition of the Library is satisfactory with the exception
of a want of shelf-room, and a considerable outlay for binding.
It is hoped that both of these matters will be attended to the
coming year.

The following list comprises books, pamphlets and papers
added to the Library during the past year, by purchase or gift :

Report of Department of Agriculture ; 1877, '78, '79 ; 1880,
'81, '82, '84, '85, '86.

Statistical Abstract for Foreign Countries, for each year, from
1873 to 1885.

Statistics of Public Libraries of the United States ; from the
Report of the Commission of Education for the year 1884, '85,
with additions. Pamphlet; Dept. Int. The management of Public
Libraries ; by William F. Poole. Pamphlet. The Republic of
Mexico in 1876; a Political and Ethnological Division of the
Population, Character, Habits, Costumes and Vocations of its
Inhabitants. Written in Spanish, by Antonio Garcia Cubas.
Translated into English by Geo. E. Henderson.

Report from the Consuls of the United States : Nos. 83, 84,
85, 86, b7, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92.

Report of the Commission of Navigation to the Secretary of
the Treasury; from W. W. Rice.

Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1886; from
W. W. Rice.

34 REPOET OF THE LIBRARIAN. [1888.

Department of the Interior, the following: Salt, by Albert
Williams, Jr. ; Quicksilver, by Albert Williams, Jr. ; Sulphur,
by D. T. Day.

Bulletins, Nos. 1, 2, 3,4, 5; from State Board of Health, of
Nashville, Tenn.

The Study of History in American College Universities, by
Herbert B. Adams; from the Bureau of Education.

Third Inaugural Address of Hon. SatJiuel Winslovv, Mayor of
the City of Worcester,

Memoir of Alexander H. Bullock, by Charles Devens; E. W.
Lincoln.

American Pomological Society ; years 1856 — 1862, '67; 1873,
'75, '77, '79 ; 1883, '85 ; R. Manning.

Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Part
1, 1887, and Bart 2, 1886, 1887.

Curtis Botanical Magazine, 1887, Vol. 43, 3d Series, or Vol.
113 of the whole work; Society.

Proceedings of the Forestry Convention, held in Grand Rapids,
Mich., Jan. 26, 27, 1888.

Hints for Arbor Day ; Agricultural College, Michigan.

Chemistry of Food and its Adulterations; from State Board
of Health, Tennessee, 1888.

Beport of Commissioner of Education, 1885, '86.

Revue Horticole, 1887 ; Society.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (15th) of the Massachu-
setts State Grange Patrons of Husbandry, held at Springfield,
Dec. 20, 21, 1887; James Draper.

Fifth Annual Report of the Board of Control of State Agri-
cultural Experiment Station, at Amherst; Doc. No. 33.

Bulletin No. 34, State Agri. Ex. Station of Michigan ; relating
to Potatoes and Oats.

Journal of Horticulture, vols. 15 and 16 ; 3d series ; Society.

Report on the Adaptation of Russian and other Fruits to the
extreme Northern portion of the United States ; Dept. of Agri-
culture.

Census of Massachusetts, 1885 ; Agricultural Products and
Property ; H. L. Parker.

State Board of Health, 1887; H. L. Parker.

Bulletin Nos. 40 and 41, Experiment Station, Agricultural
College, Michigan.

Catalogues received : Aaron Low, Essex, Mass. ; V. H, Hallock
& Sons, Queens, N. Y. ; Peter Henderson & Co., New York ;
John Saul, Wushington, D. C. ; Henry A. Dreer, Philadelphia, Pa.

Extract from Monthly Weather Review, July, 1888, showing

1888.] WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 35

average date of first killing frost at Stations of Yolnntary and
State Weather Service Observers; Department of State.

Tlie American Horj;icultural ; Monthly ; Society.

The American Florist; Semi-Monthly ; 1888; Society.

Gardening Illustrated ; Weekly; 1888; Society.

Tick's Magazine; Monthly; 1888; Society.

The Garden ; English Weekly ; 1888 ; Society.

The Gardener's Chronicle ; English Weekly ; 1888 ; Society.

The Agricnltnral Gazette ; English Weekly ; 1888 ; Society.

The American Agriculturist ; :Monthly ; 1888 ; Society.

The Country Gentleman; 1888; Society.

Garden and Forest ; Weekly; 1888; Society.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

CHARLES E. BROOKS,

Lihrarian.
Hall of Flora,

November 7, 1888.

TEANSACTION'S

OF THE

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,

A. D. 1889.

CHARLES HAMILTON, PRINTER,

311 MAIN STREET.

1889.

CONTENTS

Page

Report of the Secretarj- 5

Report of the Librarian 31

Report of the Treasurer 35

Report of the Delegate to the Session of the American Pomological

Society, at Ocala, Florida 38

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

A. I). 1889.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the MeTYibers of the

WoKCESTER County Horticultcral Society :

What the Society has been able to accomplish, during the past
official year, in its appointed, peculiar province, will be set forth,
with more or less distinctness of outline, elsewhere in this Re-
port. Otherwise, — it is possible to congratulate you upon an
average measure of success in securing money, wherewith to
defray legitimate expenses and meet the levy of invidious taxa-
tion. But there are improvements imperatively necessary to our
Hall that ought not to be deferred longer. The worst of it all
is, that by so mucli the better we make the actual value of our
building, by so much wider do we expand the vision, or fancy, of
the Assessors ! Yet the wall in the rear must be carried out
flush with the line of the Fassage-Way, if we would have the
platform in the Hall of Pomona even comfortable ; or wish to
protect ourselves from continual encroachment, with ultimate
possibility of serious damage. The upper story should be entire-
ly remodelled by alteration and enlargement of the Hall of
Ceres, or otherwise, as a sound discretion shall elect : so that
any party may commence and finish its evening of social pleasure
under one and the same roof. Our ground location is admirable ;
thanks to the sagacity of our Founders who, if they builded
wiser than they knew, at least had the courage to build ! Our
halls of Flora and Pomona are of easy access, which is not quite

6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

as trne of the hall of Ceres. In our case, as in that of the fabled
aspirant for distinction, it may be safely averred that there is
plenty of spare room at the top. Let ns then make the most of
it ! Let us bring it into actual daily use and occupation ; simul-
taneously remedying some evils that are inevitable in the present
condition. Tlie Finance Cotnmittee doubt not that the beauty
and symmetry of our several halls can be retained, while mate-
rially increasing their attractiveness and value as a source of
income. It cannot be very long, in the nature of things, before
something will have to be done ; then possibly to less advantage
or after the alienation of steady and profitable patronage.

It may be proper to add tliat while the Finance Committee do
not reproacii themselves witii or because of tlie appearance of
the front, exterior wall, neither do they cherish undue pride on
its account. How long i)efore it will become positively discredit-
able to the Society? if it falls much short of that now.

A Society is incorporated, by the General Court of Massachu-
setts, for the explicit and declared purpose of advancing the
Science and encouraging and improving the Practice of Horticul-
ture. It is no violent presumption, arguing from its honorable
membership, that the Society has kept that aim steadily in view.
Premiums have been offered, and gratuities bestowed without
intermission, and in almost a ])rofusion of graciousness, through-
out its legal existence and down to the present day. Is it un-
tirael}', or at all out of place, to inquii-e vvhethor there is not
peril of falling into a rut wherefrom there shall be no extrica-
tion ? Is it not possible that a Society, which puts forth as the
ostensible reason for its existence, that it determines annually
which of a dozen lots of Baldwin Apples, or Barllett Pears,
manifests points of superiority, may simply cumber the ground ?
Is not Progression an imperative law of nature ? Is not immo-
bilit}' the equivalent of stagnation ? wherefrom are in inevitable
evolution, dissolution and decay. How many years does it require
to ascertain the possibilities of a new variety ; — if a fruit, — its
hardiness and fecundity, and whether it may be especially subject
to attack from insect enemies! How numerous generations must
grow, develop, and exhibit specimens before a final decision shall

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 7

be reached that this or that Apple or Pear is wortliy of encour-
agement ; is fair to the eye, luscious to the taste, nor exception-
ally difficult to cultivate ! When those points have been decided
once, — why should there be motions in arrest of judgment, or
appeals therefrom ? But yet, — what else, or in what manner
different, — is our official action as a Society ? In the matter of
size and weight — say of the Bartlett Pear, since the famous con-
test between Butman, Ripley, and Stebbins, — what has repaid our
efforts! lias there been a single step in advance? Is there not
even discouraging proof of retrogression ? Whether advance or
recession — what do we, in recognition of cither, but plod along
in the same old way, — ofJcring a premium for the best of the
year to come ! Do we stop to inquire why each successive step
is not surely forward ? Do we spend more than a moment in
thouglit, to try and explain, as the American Humorist tersely
put his apt conundrum, " Why are these things thus ! " The
Exhibition passes, — and there is an end. The morning newspa-
per makes record of the display and publishes sharp note of its
least latent inferiority. What has the collective Society, — what
have the associate Members themselves, — learned from the costly
and laborious olijcct-teaching ! What lessons has that teaching
imparted to the community that could not have been deduced at
less trouble to all concerned, and for not much greater expense,
from an inspection of the kerb-stone display by any of a half-
dozen hucksters along Main Street? Beyond the memory of
any man now living the Bartlett Pear had been decided worthy of
general cultivation. As far back as the origin of the present
generation your own Exhibit'ons settled, by a thorough competi-
tive test, to what extreme its bulk could be stimulated. You have
developed nothing better, subsequently, — no specimens of equal
size. Does this vain repetition advance the science, or encourage
and improve the practice of Horticulture ? This Society might
reply, like all others similarly inclined and actually misguided,
that it puts money in their purse ! But so, for a while, would
any other form of prostitution !

Is it not well worth our while ; and has not the time come, now
that the dawn of our Fiftieth Armiversary begins to tinge the

8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICUI.TURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

horizon ; to indulge in introspection, and to assure ourselves, by
such thoroucrh self-examination, whether we are securing the ut-
most possible benefit from our industry and investment ! It is no
easy inatter to prefer the strait and narrow way. Our immediate
self denial will enure to the benefit of posterity, — you may assert.
Conceded! but still you can only avoid; — not answer the blunt
retort, — what has posterity done for us? And what certainty
can be had, — whether from deduction or inference, that posterity
will be suited with the provision that we make for it ! May it
not suffice to attempt the complete discharge of our duties as
they are presented to us, in our own day and generation ; leaving
those by whom we are succeeded, to take their own measure of
obligation to themselves and their time, in their own peculiar
environment ! The question then recurs : Cannot we better
advance the Science and encourage and improve the Practice of
Horticulture, than by the mere award of money to the larger or
fairer specimen of Fruit, or Flower ? Perhaps it might not be
expedient or wise to discourage object-lessons altogether. But,
cannot a higher form of teaching be introduced ; a more ad*
vanced system of instruction such as a careful expenditure of our
frugal savings shall enable us to initiate and foster? Experi-
ment Stations — so called — appear to be restricted within the com-
paratively narrow province of agriculture ; which, in its accepted
modern definition is limited to " that species of cultivation which is
intended to raise grain and other field crops for man and beast, —
in short, signifying husbandry." Those Stations are not intended
to take much account of the problems which have perplexed the
human race since Eden was foreclosed and the first garden be-
came a cattle ranch. Their Docents do not ransack mouldy
papyri for some primeval mention of Fire Blight; nor exhaust
patience and time in searching cuneiform inscriptions if perchance
they may disclose to modern inquisitiveness whether there were
a worm in the core of that Gravenstein before whose seductive
as|)ect Eve succumbed — an easy victim ! Nor yet does Clark
University come to our aid; its energies being confined, at least
for the present, to a profound analysis of the precise inwardness
of the Cosmic Egg. So that what we — Horticulturists — would
ascertain, we must find out for ourselves — and others !

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 9

It is quite likely that no amount of study will avail to deter-
mine with certainty, why every fruit of the earth was yielded pre-
maturely, A. D. 1889. We may not learn with the strength of
conviction, for what occult reason the canker-worm disappeared,
and the caterpillar ravaged in very wantonness. Bacteria, it is
asserted, are deadly foes to the pear tree. In what manner and to
what extent, are these lowest forms of vitality subject to climatic
influence that they did not get in their tine work during this year
of our Lord, 1889, wherein, if countless foes have compassed us
round about, Fire-Blight at least has not been mustered in the
ranks of the devastating legion.

And yet another question, of serious import to ourselves.
Shall not the science of Horticulture review the practice of graft-
ing? If the unsettled problem of its expediency or wisdom is not
solved by ourselves, to whom such research should be familiar,
by whom then unless those delicious sciolists who resolve Flori-
culture, Pomolog}', Horticulture and the growth of vegetables
into distinct and separate classes! Says that high authority. — The
Garden {E7ig.) :

The Evils of Grafting. — I was very glad to see the remarks
from such a good gardener as Mr. Scrase-Dickins on this sul)jcct
at pp. 607-8. Grafting is in eflf'ect a kind of adulteration.
When we ask the nurserymen to sell us one plant they often give
us two in a more or less — generally less — effectual state of com-
bination. It is an analogue of the coffee and chicory business.
Amateurs cannot be too alert and cautious in seeing that they ob-
tain either honest plants on their own roots, or if grafted plants,
then a declaration to'that effect should be made by the nursery-
man, and the name of the stock on which the species or variety
ordered is worked should be given. Grafted plants of .all kinds
arc open to all sorts of accidents and disaster, and very often
the soil, or the climate, or the cultivator is blamed by employers
for evils which tlius originated in the nursery. It is to be hoped
that all cultivators interested in trees and shrubs will now keep
their eyes open and note the behaviour of grafted as compared
with own-rooted kinds. If grafted plants are better than own-
rooted ones, then let us accept them, but do not let us be deceived
in the matter. If in certain places grafting as a convenience has
to be resorted to, then let it be root-grafting, a system that event-
ually affords the scion a chance of rooting on its own account in

10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

a natural way. Many plants snceecd as o^raftcd wlien yonnor,
or for a few 3'ears, and al'tcrwards fail, and tlioti the fjarduner is
often blamed instead of tlic nurseryman. — F. W. Burhidge.

*** We should not plant any grafted tree or shrub whatever
so far as what arc called "ornamental" trees and shrubs are con-
cerned. There may be reason for the universal grafting of fruit
trees, though we dou!)t it. But of the serious injury wrought by
grafting in other ways there are heaps of evidence. The evils
are more serious than have been stated in The Garden. — Ed.

Does not experience here in America, confirm that absolute
dictum ? What wealth of Rhododendrons has been dissij)ated
in the futile efibrt to unite those between whom Nature had
decreed an insuperable barrier ! Take for another exam))le the
Primus triloba of quite recent introduction and ol)vious charm !
likely to renew olden memories of the Flowering Almond.
Flourishing for a season in rich luxuriance, and all at once drop-
ping off in a species of collapse, as it were, alike sudden and hopeless.
Roses, on alien roots, are a delusion and snare. Propagation in that
way offers no advantages over the simpler method of natural
growth to which layering and subdivision afford ample subven-
tion. The eager greed of the professional dealer overreaches
itself. Identity may be transmuted, but maturation must be of
gradual development. Exhaustion supervenes upon inoculation
with a growth that has been so hurried as to allow neither accre-
tion nor storage of vital forces. It sui)plies an apt illustration of
that haste which makes waste with almost invariable assurance.

Mr. Robinson does not so emphatically condemn the practice of
grafting, among Pomologists. But its evils must be apparent
enough to such an acute observer, as he looks upon the currant
and gooseberry '■'trees'*^ of which perpetuation by a layering or ^
sub-division has been rendered impossible. Does not grafting
open a young heaven, as it were, to the lazy Horticulturist?
Somebody else alike atnbitious and energetic, has taken pains to
sow, cultivate and test, until the point of approbation was reached.
His neighbor tastes, — likes the flavor and begs scions. There
was promise of a step forward. Has it not come to a halt ? The
medical faculty speak of "healing from the first intention." But
they would not be understood as conveying the impression that in

1889,] TRANSACTIONS. 11

that first intention, liealtli lies inherent, or that it is inevitably
imparted, ex vi tndneris. Ilap-hazard some superb peaches were
shown in our Hall within a few j'ears last past. Might not per-
severance convert such chances into a certainty? We know
that excellence was not confined to a few varieties, for the
equals, if not superiors of the Cooledge and Cravvfords have been
developed in this County and exhibited upon our tables. Your
Secretary never beheld finer specimens than were shown to him
during the first week of September, ult., that had been suflfered
to mature, whether on John, Richards or Sever Streets; perhaps
forgotten by the donor, or overlooked by the ubiquitous thief.
We may not ol^ject to the insertion in thrifty stocks, of buds
from trees of such unqualified excellence. But why not secure
and plant sound pits from choice fruits that we are sure were
never infected by disease — gathering where we ourselves have
strewn ? "Be aye stickin in a tree, Jock !" said rare old Sir
Walter.

Still another problem whose solution may upset pre-con-
ceived notions, or dispel the vague mists of irrational prejudice.
It has been taken for granted for long years that the out-door
grape, for instance, requires a protracted warm season to which
the direct rays of the sun must contribute heat and light. And
yet, upon the fifteenth of September, ult., when the attention of
your Secretary was first arrested, the Diana, — that latest of all ap-
proved varieties to mature, — hung from the vine of as ripe
quality and full color as often on the first day of November !
What latent forces in the laboratory of Nature conspired to
achieve this surprising result ? The winter it is true, had been
mild. But there ensued, for a wonder in Massachusetts, a
rainy season ; when clouds dripping moisture were daily with us
and the sun gradually faded into a tradition. The very early
maturity of that grape cannot, of course, be owing to solar influ-
ence, operating as usual. It is easy enough to frame theories
that tnight hold water this year, at least, since there has been
little else. Have we stumbled perchance, upon a clue? Does
the grape crave water, and thrive upon it, when supplied in
abundance ? We know that the wild native grape-vine selects for

12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

its liabitat raoist lowlands and even dense swamps. Have we —
blind leaders of the blind, — over-looked an actual fact, because
it lay so obviously before us, and disregarded the plain lesson that
it was meant to teach ! The best and dryest crop of squashes —
Marrow and Yokohama — that your Secretary ever grew, devel-
oped while they were subject to an incessant douche. He has
never forgotten that fact, although hesitating to deduce from it
an inflexible rule. Does this year afJbrd an analogy; and are we
warranted in the contention that irrigation may be found as es-
sential to successful Horticulture here in Worcester County as
it has approved itself in far Mormonia and Monogamia ?

A marked preculiarit}' of the premature horticultural develop-
ment, this year, has been its unbroken continuity. Of yore,
there were often seasons whose promise was quickly blighted ;
wherein the opening crocus or Narcissus would be buried under
a foot of snow. The tulip has encouraged a hope, in early May,
that cold and persistent rains effecitually disappointed. This year
the strawl)erry was favored with intermittent showers until the
fecundity of such plants as were in existence made both palate
and spine tired ; consumer and grower alike wearying in well
doing. But then scarcely a single plantation of strawberries
came out from the winter in good condition. And that, not so
much owing to the season, which was unusually propitious, as to
the neglect of man to profit by his opportunities. The wliile,
raspberries spoiled, decaying in the young dog days, whose dense
moisture was prolific of a fungus or mildew between which there
neither was nor could be option. A. D. 1888-9, from the date of
your Chrysanthemum display until long after your first vernal
exhibition the skies smiled, the air was soft, and the temperature
uniformly moderate. No winter season within the memory of
any man now living was ever more genial. If, at any time, the
horticulturists of Worcester County were warranted in brigiit
anticipations it was especially in the Spring of 1889. But what
has been the harvest? If any fruit, the larger portion wormy,
or imperfect otherwise; of deficient flavor and untimely matura-
tion. Very likely the ground is carpeted or paved witii defec-
tive specimens; but the empty shelves of the fruit room oflFer
forlorn prospect for the hearty appetites of winter.

1889.] TRANSACTIONS* 13

It has been asserted by old-time devotees of Hard Cider, that
A. D. 1840, the cherry was at its prime in "Worcester, on the
seventeenth day of Jnne. The sons of political veterans saw a
renewal of that miracle, as it were, for a Massachusetts season ;
and could hug themselves in the fond delusion that the preces-
sion of fruits, like the election of the saints, had been a matter
of foreordination, and was no longer relegated to the helter-
skelter of the polls.

Our schedule for A. D. 1889, was carefully framed after a full
comparison and study of past seasons. Yet, among the earlier
fruits, Gov. Garland and Waterloo peaches were shown upon the
twenty-fifth of July, when we had only ventured to anticipate
early varieties, by a tentative gratuity on the eighth of August.
Beatrice called for August 15th, was mature upon the first of
that month. Among vegetables. Beauty tomato and Marrow
squash were both siiown upon our tables August 1st, precisely
two (2) weeks ahead of their assignment. The Bartlett pear was
necessarily advanced, to prevent it being said that an exhibition
of the Worcester County Horticultural Society was duly held,
whereat no specimens of that standard varietj' were available.
In mid September, Louise Bonne that is not gathered must needs
be picked up, bruised, from the ground.

It would hardly be worth while to speculate upon chances
yet remote; whether the winter is to close in upon us ruthlessly,
or to recede as a twelvemonth since in a dream of ethereal
mildness. Suffice it to say that this reversal of all climatic
probal)ilities introduces a new element among tlie calculations of
the horticulturist; as though the problems for his practical solu-
tion were not already perplexing enough.

Does your Secretary then surrender his faith, so emphatically
declared of late in your presence, that it is possible to grow fruit
here in Worcester County at a profit ! Recognizing the full
force of adverse conditions, which do not now for the first time
dominate the situation, he can yet perceive that the plague of
insects will not be remedied by nature alone. He believes in,
and would insist upon the destruction of infested specimens,
with as much promptitude and as thorough devotion to the work
as the careful housewife manifests in the extermination of the

14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

carpet-beetle or cimex lectularius. There are insect foes to
every crop tliat man would gatlier and enjoy. We cannot sow
and reap in indolence ; nor does any one expect laro;e fruition
when he plants grain or tuber. The cotton-boll has its especial
worm, even as the apple has its codling moth or the plum its
curculio. Tiie Hessian fly and the ])Otato beetle unite the twin
extremes of tradition and actual observation ; ceaseless diligence
alone availing to arrest their destructive ravages. Oidy from the
orchard do we count upon a return for which wc have expended no
toil. We find ourselves in possession of a lot of trees, set out
by wiiom we may or may not know ; neglected in the past, as we
cannot help seeing; their bark covered by scale or moss-grown ;
and their branches robbed by sap-sprouts of the little vigor
that they might otherwise retain. If the potato beetle comes in
force we meet his incursion with the ready resource which
science has placed in our hands. Does a thunder shower
threaten our hay, all cured for storage in the barn ? Every
hand is summoned to its rescue, Sunday though it be. The
orchard is the one thing in the possession of the horticulturist
that is left to care for itself. His father planted it, forsooth, se-
lecting the varieties approved in his own day ; or inserting them as
scions when made favorably known tiiereaftcr. His son receives no
return, from one cause or another, in an unpropitiousyear possii>ly,
and straightwny the orchard is doomed to the axe and dre. It
never seems to occur to this Earth-Lord (is the title more sono-
rous than that of the Gavman War-Lord f) that there was an
origin to the orchard, and that like may be expected with reason
to generate like for all time. He has virgin soil of his own ;
whether such from the bounty of nature or the fault of man, is
immaterial. If heretofore tilled to the point of exhaustion
and waste. Nature has kindly intervened with her deliberate
process of restoration. Whether renovated or primeval it is as
God first looked upon it and said :

"Let the eartli bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and
the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself,
and it was so."

If, as your Secretary has insisted before, fruit is not grown to
profitable advantage throughout this County of Worcester, here-

1889.] TKANSACTIONS. 15

tofore renowned for its poraological skill and success, does it not
behoove nsto look at home and see if the fanlt docs not lie at our
own door and not at the throne of God ! For if at our own door
self-conviction will be the first step towards amendment. If scale,
blight or crack, with the worse than Egyptian plethora of insects,
are tiie divine penalty for neglect and sloth, we shall at least
have the option of mending onr ways as we bow in conscious sub-
mission beneath the rod that smites us.

A Horticultural Society that is worthy of the name cannot
insist too strenuously that quality shall govern the bestowal of
its awards. The Society itself is composed of those who
already know a good thing from actual experience, and of others
who became members because, having seen an exhibition of what
was superior to their own, they naturally wished to grow it in
their own gardens. They desired flowers to cut for the adorn-
ment of their living rooms, and fruits wherewith to appease
those youthful api>etitcs that were too keen to await the Thanks-
giving turkey. Their roses may not comply with the scale of
technical perfection, nor be fit to compete against professional
florists, in a class of twelve pet whims ! But if the petals of their
home-raised flowers should chance to be slightly fretted by wind
and storm, their owners would at least have flowers not too choice
for personal or domestic ornament ; while upon fragrance they
would be sure to insist, as a sine qua non. Nature, which
created Jumbo as an exception among elephants, also imposes
bulk upon the cabbage and squash. But the size alone of
Her Majesty confers no lasting supremacy among roses; nor
do symmetry, color and perfume fail to retain their tenacious
hold uj^on the popular taste. How often has Jacqueminot been
left ofl' from selected lists. How invariably do the people rally
in its behalf, and by their instinctive if untrained preference, vin-
dicate the ancient adage co-eval witli the very birth of Democ-
racy, that a good many are apt to be wiser than a very few !

As matter of fact, have we not actually retrograded in the
cultivation of fruits? What does Olean Street show to-day, com-
pared with its superb exhibition of a few years ago ? One of

16 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

our members, heretofore famous for the facility with which he
could extract animal as well as vegetable blood from a turnip,
afid whose diversity of tomatoes from one and the same stalk
bade fair to originate a new genesis, has abandoned his idols,
succumbing to the attractions and attrition of house to house
traffic. Years since, the venerable Charles Richardson set an
example, placing Triomphe de Gand upon our tables for seven
(7) successive weeks, all the specimens being in peerless condition
and size. Now, that variety is discarded ; its excellence a tradi-
tion cherished by a few of your older members, while your pre-
miums are literally the prey of novelties that would never be
grown if they were but thoroughly known. Joseph C. Lovell is
no longer alive to astonish us by his unlimited collection of
American grapes, and to compel attention to the merits of his
subject, wherein his faith was as sincere as it was manifested in
the downright earnestness of his lionest nature. The huckster
can be trusted to look out for himself, as he does! If a pear
will sell it is the pear for him. The old Chelmsford would
meet his want, as well as Earlc's Bergamot ! the Lord forgiving
your Secretaiy for naming the two in the same connection.
The Clairgeau is to him a very symbol of excellence, — as it were
a paragon among fruits. If it attracts the eye and relaxes the
purse-strings, w)iy should he care if it does not also tickle the
palate ! But the conscience of a Horticultural Society cannot be
so easygoing nor pliant. It must strive for pre-eminence or fall
far short of the purpose of its existence. Would outward ap-
pearance sell the Ansault, Lucrative, or even the Seckel ! Possi-
bly the casual streak of crimson to Earlc's Bergamot might find
a market, more or less sluggish, for that variety, but its accept-
ance and rank should not be suffered to depend upon the hazard
of color. Bcune Giffard is indisputably the best pear of its
brief season. Yet it is allowed to die out to make room for
Clapp's Favorite, alike large and tasteless, but oh ! so pretty.
Intrinsic positive merit is the only sure ground whereon a society
like this can base its commendation. Lacking that, whatsoever
else may characterize them, nor flower or fruit can deserve our
approval. And without such merit, it is safe to predict that
popular favor cannot be retained long.

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 17

In the preliminary remarks with which George Jaqnes, of
honored horticultural renown, prefaced his pamphlet record of
transactions during our earlier history, he says that :

"The success of the society was no longer to be questioned ; a
large number of gentlemen (would that we could add — and
ladies) became members of it."

The statement which he was unable to make is, A. D. 1889,
the easiest possible to your Secretary, as it would have been at
any time within an entire generation last past. It might be
difficult to exaggerate the extent of our obligations to our female
associates of this Society, not alone in Worcester, but throughout
many of the adjoining towns, who have so zealously contributed
from their time and means towards the success of the frequent
exhibitions. It does not require a very keen observer to notice
that the favor of Ceres and Pomona is uncertain ; often withheld
upon the merest pretext that this rowen must be got in, or that
corn shucked. Flora is no such slouch : doing all things de-
cently and in order, and yet keeping her skirts ever clean as the
whitest snow-flake that threatens her very life. It has often
cheered your Secretary, as he lifted his eyes from the dull routine
of his clerical task, to behold the apparition that would surely
greet him, of bright looks, intent interest, and the sure develop-
ment of the loose collection into a tasteful arrangement. The
weight alone of the well-filled baskets should be appreciable to
some who have not yet felt the grasshopper a burden. And all
this, bear in mind ! constantly ; as well in the fervent heat of early
summer, as during that sticky, oppressive season sacred to the
dog-star and his countless litter of stellar pups. Whosoever else
may faint or falter. Flora and her votaries offer a cheek fair and
fresh as the blush rose to our salute of welcome. Robbing
themselves for our benefit, our bounty can return at best but an
inadequate recompense. Yet if the remuneration that we may
bestow cannot, in the very nature of things, be commensurate
with desert, it will be possible, at the worst, to manifest an
appreciation as cordial as it should be unreserved.

But with all this devotion and self-sacrifice can we not detect
a taint, as it were, connecting it with the soil, — of the earth,

18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

earthy ? Your Trustees propose four (4) premiums in almost
every class of Floriculture; thereby evincing a liberality quite
akin to profusion, and such as it extends, in like measure, to
neither the Fruit nor Vegetable Departments. Yet latterly, there
has crept or crawled in a practice of ignoring the fundamental
purpose of our Society ; of deliberatelj' declining our challenge to
friendly competition ; and of awaiting, with such Christian and
feminine grace as might be held in superfluity, the reluctant
bounty of the judge. This method of exhibition, seemingly
growing in acceptance throughout these latter days, is little better
than an evasion of tlie spirit of our rules. Competition is essen-
tial to our healthy existence, and without it we must stagnate
and die. It is the better of two or more lots of flowers or fruit,
to which we intend to award our premiums ; and the palm of
excellence can be determined in no other way than by compari-
son. The gratuity sliould never be bestowed as a matter of
course. Its original design was to smooth the sliglit asperities
consequent upon that strict adherence to form without which no
Society can exist in sound vitality. But when the award of gra-
tuities has become numerically, if not intrinsically, superior to
the premiums, wherever or to whom is especial merit assigned ?
That lofty standai-d of supreme and unquestioned excellence that
has been maintained unswervingly for well-nigh fifty (50) years
is ignominiously abased ; — and all for what ! That this or that
exhibitor, who confesses inferiority by declining to enter into
equal and honorable rivalry with associates endowed with no
greater advantages, may get fifty cents ! Shade of Daniel
Waldo ! was it for such a final consummation that you bequeathed
the generous sum whereon were secured, firm and true, the
foundations of this Horticultural Hall!

This Society was represented in accordance with its usual cus-
tom, at the late session of the American Pomological Society in
Ocala, Florida. The very interesting report of your delegate
has been submitted, and should be published in your Transac-
tions. It would appear to be a duty that we owe to our acknowl-
edged high repute among cognate organizations to co-operate
with all who have the true interests of Pomology at heart. For,

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 19

although but a portion of our interest is directed towards the
origination and development of Fruits, Horticulture is all-enibrac-
ing, and vital with generous influence. It is not liable to strict-
ure, as appears to be the conceit of that funny aggregation, — the
New England Agricultural Society. It was not left for Groton
and Salcin to separate those who were united at the creation.
And, even though a rude ploughshare may be driven through
our especial field of science and practice ; drawing a faint line of
distinction where difference never existed ; establishing Horticul-
ture, Floriculture, Pomology, and Vegetable growth apart, by
themselves, in a novel and peculiar terminology ; we have posi-
tive evidence continually before us that those who were joined
when the stars sano; together cannot be severed though the
brasses clash. The oranges of Florida concern us — largely their
consumers. It is our hope, and interest alike, that no untimely
frost may chill their nascent bloom or cut off tiieir ample prom-
ise. Doubtless, ere long a system of interchange will make the
traffic in semi-tropical fruit more a matter of mutual barter than,
as now, of direct, one-sided outlay. The Belleflower, Northern
Spy, or Hoxbury Russet may yet find place upon the tables in
Jacksonville and St. Ausrustine. Tiie trade, at present, does not
impoverish us, although we have to pay in cash. As with bread
cast upon the waters we are benefited ultimately. In this case,
by the commerce, by the personal intercourse, by the enjoyment
of delicious and healthful fruit, that we cannot ourselves pro-
duce, and should therefore rejoice to get so near our own doors.
It is of interest, and perhaps advantage, to note the difierent
opinions expressed in various sections of the Republic, concern-
ing varieties of the Pear more or less favorably known among
ourselves. Thus, the JSTew York Times, which keeps a close and
usually intelligent watch of the fruit market, had only to say of
the Bosc that, like the boy's puppy, it was better than it looked !
In a subsequent issue, it referred to the Sheldon as —

" An apple-shaped pear, rusty in appearance, somewhat sweet,
and is really a very good pear either for cooking or for eating in
a raw state."

But a ver}' few weeks since, one of our few surviving Honorary
Members — John J. Thomas — who, since the death of Marshall P.

20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

Wilder, and the enforced retirement of Patrick Barry, stands
without a peer among living Pomologists, published an article in
the Country Gentleman descriptive of " Some good varieties of
the Pear." Summed up, they are Anjou, Sheldon, St. Michel,
Seckel, Lawrence, Clairgeau, Bosc ; the conclusion being eloquent
with praise of the Bartlett. It is curious to find this eminent
authority while admitting that the Bosc, for instance, " is one of
the best ol all Autumn Pears," yet declaring that "the tree is not
a very good grower, and is injured by our severest winters."
Here, in Worcester, the Bosc is at last receiving its proper recog-
nition as one of the very best varieties. Although late in coming
into bearing, its growth is rapid enough to be consistent with
maturation of the wood ; and it minds a blast from the North Pole
about as much as does the Hickory or White Oak. The writer
has often puzzled himself as to the character of the winters in
Western New York ; surmising that the contiguity of countless
lakes miglit encourage frequent and intense vicissitudes of tem-
perature. He recalls to mind that Ellwanger & Barry once thought
Cydonia Japonica not much better than half-hardy in the vicinity
of Rochester. Yet Horticulture is a success because of the prox-
imity of these charming bodies of water ; and the wonder is why
the tough wood of the Pear should not be equally proof against
extremes of frost, in that favored region, as it has approved itself
for more than a century, in the American Bottom at Kaskaskia,
among the old French settlements of Illinois !

Writino- of the Seckel, — Mr. Thomas calls attention to a disease
that it may be hoped will continue local, for the Seckel is a
variety of world-wide acceptance that could illy be spared. It
has been nearly destroyed, he says, by the same disease that has
been fatal to the White Doyenne, or St. Michel :

" Scarcely a single bushel of good specimens being found in an
estimated crop of two hundred bushels. Some years ago the
Seckel in this orchard was tine and fair, and was the most profit-
able variety in an orchard of the leading market sorts. And
during the present year some trees only a few miles distant bore
perfectly fair fruit. This disease has puzzled cultivators, and in
the experiments we have made Seckel trees subjected to enrich-

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 21

ing cultivation, others growing in grass, and those pruned and
unpruned, have been alike affected. Tliis disease will afford an
excellent opportunity for scientists to exhibit their skill in discov-
erino; an effectual cure."

The symptoms described by Mr. Thomas are markedly similar
to some which, in the recent experience of your Secretary, have
characterized the failure of Winter Nelis. Trees show white
with bloom, a profusion of young fruit, thereafter a cessation of
enlargement, until finally scab or scale, cracking, culminating in
the premature fall of a worthless crop. Abundant manure or
none, root-pruning, shortening-in of branches or allowance of
rampant growth, — it was all the same in the end. Can the
Docents explain ?

The selection of certain varieties by Mr. Thomas, and his
approval so far as it goes, has almost exclusive relation to mar-
ket purposes. Of Anjou, he say tliat an "experienced commis-
sion merchant remarked that, if this pear only had a fine red
cheek, it would be the best of all market varieties." He describes
Lawrence as a "late Autumn and early Winter pear, of fine
quality, but not equal to the best, is only partially melting.

* * * It is a good market variety." Of that deceptive
beauty, Clairgeau ; — " the pears arc large, smooth, and when
well ripened and have become soft, they are excellent in quality.

* * * Trees fifteen years or more of age uniformly bear
pears of good quality, and the variety proves one of the best for
market." He adds that the Howell is profitable; but, of the
Bartlett, enough cannot be written in praise.

All which may suffice for incentive to individual cultivators.
But Pomology exacts something more. And even our venerable
associate might do wisely to keep fresh in mind, when prosecuting
his favorite science, the grand legend upon the seal of his imperial
State. Excelsior is not a motto for the average market ! Should
not Horticulture set truth before the people ? Accustom them to
the best, and esteem nothing too good for their taste or consump-
tion ! Were your Secretary to frame a list for the owners of
small homesteads ; — a list of pears that he considers indispensable

22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

because of conceded superiority in qualit}^ ; fecundity ; hardi-
ness, or general adaptation to a diversity of climates; he would
restrict liiinsclf, as follows : — Bartlett, Bosc, Cornice, Winter
Nelis, Josephine de Malines. For the benetit of the children,
whose multiplication, to the shame of New England ! is so fash-
ionably discouraged, there should be space devoted to St. Ghislain
and Washington ; palatable enongli to their elders, but of which,
ripening and falling from the tree for a whole month, you can at
any time see the boys and girls searching the ground in eager ap-
petite for windfalls. The noblest of all late pears, that should
grace the Christmas table, has been suffered to fall into oblivion
because of a presumed, perhaps real, tendency to blight. But
anyone who would like to know how good a pear can bo, when
in its perfection, has but to grow and ripen Glout Mor9eau as it
was shown long years since by John C. Ripley, of perennial
renown in this Hall.

It should be a subject for earnest congratulation that every
effort, whether open or covert, to prevent the Society of Ameri-
can Florists taking a position of direct hostility to the levy of
customs-duties upon the importation of Foreign Bulbs, &c., &c.,
met with such signal failure. If there is aught in the practice or
science of politics, whereto American Horticulture should be
swift to acknowledge its obligation, it is the fundamental principle
of free and unrestricted commerce. The absurd effort to stay
the invasion and ravages of Phylloxera vastatrix, by an absolute
prohibition throughout the Continent of Europe of all traffic in
vines or cuttings, succumbed to the sudden and inglorious fate that
it merited. The American Hog (the quadruped !) is peremptorily
excluded from Germany : but Trichince multiply and swarm in
the intestines of the warrior descendents of Arminius. We
invite and, if possible, assimilate : where we cannot cure, we
endure. Just reflect, for an instant, upon the floral wealth
whereof we should deprive ourselves, if we gave heed to that
most virulent of all lunacies that America should surround her-
self with an insuperable wall ! Think of the countless array of
brilliant, hardy shrubs that Japan has yielded to our prying

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 23

search ; of the barrenness that would displace thrift and beauty,
were it to be determined that tlie Chinese and Japanese Flora
must be dispensed with once for all ! With much that is pecu-
liarly our own, to what forlorn desolation should we condemn
ourselves, were we to surrender those fruits of indefatigable toil
whereby Fortune and flog^ so lavishly enriched our gardens and
lawns ; crowning themselves, the while, with perennial laurel. It
may be that Hyacinths and Tulips would be of possible propaga-
tion in the muck of Peat, or Pine Meadows; or upon the sands
of May Street, by Pipeville. But is it not obvious that Drain-Tile
yield the better harvest ; wherefrom Drapers and Lovells gather
where they have strewn, fashioning that which they know how to
manufacture; leaving Holland to produce what the experience of
centuries and the tireless industry of a plodding race has suc-
ceeded in growing to a perfection that is, and must doubtless
continue, absolutely unrivalled !

The hoarse croak of the political vulture is that Home Indus-
try must be protected ! Is there no industry employed upon the
farm and garden ? Or is that old-fashioned virtue indicated
solely by tlie factory roll-call ? Is there no toil at seed-time and
harvest, or is its only emblem the miner's pick-axe ? Tax
one to extinction that thereby another may live and thrive ! In
plainer phrase, according to the terse old maxim : rob Peter to
pay Paul ! For instance, it has been proposed to levy a prohibi-
tory duty upon the importation of Tin-Plate, whereof not a
square foot is made in this country ! Could it be manufactured
at a profit, there is plenty of idle capital that would have been
applied to the task, long ago. But, besides the prospect of an as-
sured projBt, the lure of a monopoly undisturbed by competition
must be the attraction for unemployed money- Possibly you
may fancy that Horticulture would not be affected by such legis-
lation, and deem that your Secretary is hard pushed for an illus-
tration of what the bigot or purblind may decry as a partisan
argument ! Yet, — at a meeting of that most useful organization,
— the Western New York Horticultural Society, holden at Hoch-
ester, N. Y., in January of the current year, Mr. S. G. Curtice,

24 WORCESTER COUKTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

during a discussion upon the Canning Industry, published the fol-
lowing statement showing the business of his firm :

Expended for A. D. 1886. 1887. 1888.

Fruit $142,000 $203,000 $236,000

Tin-Plate 38,000 43,000 70,500

Sugar 10,400 13,000 14,500

Labor 36,000 54,500 68,000

$226,400 $313,500 $389,000

This mind you describes the work and out-put of but a single
firm ! Leaving out of consideration the oyster business as alien
to our pursuits though of kin to our appetites, at what sum shall
we duly estimate the value of material essential to the proper
working of the innumerable canning-factories throughout the
Union ? Shall Corn and Tomatoes be doomed to rot while some
pampered monopolist and plutocrat in Pennsylvania contrives to
fasten still new rivets in the fetters tliat contract and cramp our
Terrseculture ! Shall our hill-sides be laid waste and our farms
abandoned to sterility ; until nature supervenes with her benefi-
cent processes restoring and vivifying; for no better reason than
that if Massachusetts sets up for herself in open market, selling
where she can dearest and buying where she ought cheapest,
paying unto Csesar meanwhile all which he has the conscience to
exact; she may arouse hostility among the fair-weather friends
who were always notorious for a charity that vaunteth itself
in public places, but is only lavish in the seclusion of its own
home !

Take the article of Sugar, — an item in the tables of Mr. Cur-
tice and a very palpable factor in the grocery accounts of Yankee
housewives. Under the stimulus of excessive duties the exotic
cane has been forced to an unnatural growth in an extreme sec-
tion of our Republic. Shielded by that almost prohibitory Tariff,
the Trust steps in and dictates the price at which it will suffer
Coftee and Tea to be sweetened. Cranberry Sauce to be made as
it ought to be, Fruit to be canned or preserved. The frugal
housewife, who has seen the cost of refined sugar almost doubled
within the last two years, may pride herself on the merits of a

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 25

theory thateonfronts her with snch a condition. It is the same old
story, — the spirit that acidulates tiie tones of our ascetic friends ;
— of an artificial stimnlus whereof the force is impaired by use
or repetition, whose application and strength must be continually
renewed or augmented, but of which the final result is surely
debaucli, demoralization, and death.

There was land of old, throughout New England that, when
tickled with a hoe laughed with a harvest. There was a time
and not so long ago but that your Secretary was an eye-witness
to the reckless waste, when the Terrseculturists of Illinois threw
their manure heaps into the nearest creek rather than be at the
trouble of spreading it over their fields ! Now, — agents of New
Hampshire and Vermont, aye, even of Berkshire in our own
Massachusetts, are striving to attract settlers from foreign parts,
— Parthians and Armenians, the dwellers at the equator and in
the land of the midnight sun, the saintl}' Swede in especial ! that
farms allowed to run to waste may once more find occupants and
yield taxes ! the chief end of civilized man. The alluvial soil of
Illinois is not yet exhausted. But the plaint of its tillers is uni-
versal and vents no discordant note. It is incentive to reflection
among themselves, so far and yet so near, and is fraught with the
gravest suggestions to us. The land diminishes in fertility, the
foreign market is denied, while the home market fails, and man
grows steadily poorer. Writes from Champaign, Illinois, the
observant correspondent of that pre-eminent newspaper, — The
Country Gentleman : * * *

"Their cows and rough stock are scarcely worth 2 cts. per lb.,
and even 300 lb. fat veal calves are difiicult to raise 3^ cts. upon.
The corn, oat and hay crops of 1889, for the black soil counties,
are scarcely more than two-thirds the average per acre of the
last five years, while prices for these and neat cattle are 30, if
not 40 or 50 per cent, lower.

" Meanwhile the rate of taxation is rather increasing than dimin-
ishing, and there is no reduction in the salaries of public ofiicers."

And most pregnant is the reflection, with which he concludes,
if such is the condition of Terrseculture

" In counties on the black soil of Illinois, one of the World's
most fertile and favorably situated tracts of land, what can be

26 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

the state of affairs where the soil is less exuberant and the
situation less to be desired ! "

Another writer of the same State, from its Rock River region,
which was doubtless created to console man for the loss of
Eden, after tlie forfeiture of that primeval garden, says that
" milch cows bring $14.00 for common, $30.00 for choice; steers
$2.25 to $2.50 per cwt." Yet, like an intelligent, and, what is bet-
ter, an honest man, not being blinded b}' partisan prejudice, he
admits that "the laws of supply and demand alone can help us."
And further on, after referring to the establishment of milk fac-
tories, he concludes with a positive assertion that may not accord
with the experience of some of our members :

" But, before dairying, or any other brancli of farming, come
the products of the garden for profit, if vegetables can be sold
at almost any price." His conclusion is curious: "Oil-stoves
and canned fruits and vegetables ruin the market and revolu-
tionize the kitchen."

The illusion of the so-called Home Market is held out to the
terrseculturist as an especial lure. When he would sell fruit
that should be eaten at home, better for himself and his young
family, that no market at all were in existence ! When he fos-
ters the abnormal growth of a manufacturing town, with its
inevitable concomitants of gregarious lawlessness and vice, the
reflection wliether he has directed his action as a citizen wisely
and well must compel his most serious consideration. The am-
bition that possesses so many of our towns and cities to try and
surpass each other in the mere matter of population should be
reckoned a species of insanity. Neither prosperity, nor all the
virtues, are exclusive products of the detached grange ; nor yet
are they monopolized by such aggregations of farmsteads as may
suffice to constitute a town. The development from village to
city, when it is inevitable, would better be a natural progression ;
the result of evolution, as it were, rather than of incorporated
speculative greed. The Golden Age may have been a myth.
New England, in its formative youth, was perhaps harsh and
intolerant ; subordinating earthly enjoyment to the rare luck of
predestination. But there never was a better place to live in,

1889.] TEANS ACTIONS. 27

and, when the appointed time came, to die; until the haste to get
rieh beyond measure created and upheld the high-pressure fac-
tory system.

Travel sometimes opens the eyes and broadens the observation.
Our minister to Portugal,* so well known to you in all his Protean
shapes, sojourning for the nonce in one of the " effete mon-
archies," is now of the opinion that,

"The tiller of the soil in America is interested in the tiller of
the soil in Europe, and the herdsman of the plains feels that the
fountain-head from which his animals have sprung forms an
important part of the most cultivated agricultural economy. The
lesson the farmer is to learn is spread out over every latitude
and is taught by every nationality. The results of experiments
and experience in one land may be profitably observed in another ;
the failures may warn, the success may encourage. Even the
manners and customs may be studied with protit ; the great
opportunies on the one hand and the narrow limitations on the
other."

Might not we. Horticulturists, do well to invite a halt? Possi-
bly retrace our steps in their downward tendency ! Should we
not at least consider if it were not better for Massachusetts ; at
any rate this grand old Terrsecultural County of Worcester; to
encourage and foster men and women instead of mules and
spinning jennies!

A short while since, this Society felicitated itself, not so much
upon the gain of a measurable relief from taxation, as in having
secured some equitable exemption from a burden, intolerable
because invidious and exacting. In all the Commonwealth there
were but two (2) Horticultural Societies. They had been man-
aged with frugality ; had applied their savings to the extension
of their legitimate operations, and as the direct result of the as-
siduous devotion of fifty (50) years to the purpose and objects of
their existence, the product in Massachusetts of flowers, fruits
and vegetables had become what the dullest observation cannot
fail to see. If in Faneuil or Quincy markets; or in the detached
and diminutive shops that yet remain their inferior substitutes,

* Hon. George B. Loring.

28' WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

here in Worcester ; housekeepers find the first choice fruits of the
garden, field or orchard ; their good fortune is directly attributa-
ble to the Horticultural Societies which, in Boston or Worcester,
were compelled to struggle for appreciation ; almost for existence.
For even their existence in their present degree of affluence and
unstinted liberality, would not be of possible assured achieve-
ment, were it to be attempted anew, under existing social con-
ditions. A half-century ago, every one took an interest, which
they were neither too fastidious nor lazy to manifest, in the
infant Societies. Each and all contributed what they had at the
time, and strove hard to exhibit more and better the next year.
At that period nobody cared if a gelding could be brought to
trot a second faster; its utility in propagating its kind being
duly estimated. The bicycle had not been invented, and no one
could imagine that the order of nature might be reversed, night
being transmuted to day, that man should attain the full meas-
ure of his stature and more completely develop his likeness to
his Maker, by crouching, ape-like, over a trick of mechanism !
The purpose of those disinterested men, the founders, was to
cause the earth to blossom as the rose, to induce a double return,
getting two blades of grass, where before was but one ! And,
until those Societies, by their savings, were enabled to possess
homes of their own, wherein and whereby to perfoi'm their
bounden duty under the laws of the Commonwealth, they were
constant recipients of individual and public favor. Ever since
they have been singled out with a curious persistence to bear the
burden of a discrimination that became, yearly, more invidious
and oppressive.

But the relief sought by Horticulture was enacted at last and
still later, doled out in grudging and pinched measure. The
statutes declare that

" Portions of houses of religious worship appropriated for pur-
poses other than religious worship shall be taxed at the value
tliereof to the owners of the houses."

Has the treasury of the City of Worcester ever derived a cent
from the acute vigilance of its Assessors, applied to the close thrift
of those shrewd saints whose God is apparently their belly! and

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 29

who found the Lord's House upon a Kitchen ! What tribute is
rendered unto Csesar by the devout patrons of those unctuous
larders!

Our Halls of Flora, Ceres, and Pomona are reserved for the
especial uses of our exhibitions. But the first story of the build-
ing,— the shops or store-houses whereon the Society must depend
for its very existence ; which were constructed that they might
yield a revenue to be expended for the purposes expressed in our
charter, is now assessed for an amount nearly equal to the sum
that was levied before relief was asked from the General Court!
The Worcester Agricultural Society bought a tract of land away
out in the suburbs. The city has grown and, in its expansion,
tlie forlorn cattle-ground has become surrounded by dwellings
and very largely enhanced in value. An offer for it in cash that
would have reah'zed a profit of more than a thousand per cent,
was once quietly pocketed ; a suppression that operated as an
effectual rejection. The land itself is leased at hap-hazard, for
the noble sport of mercenary base-ball ; the thrilling sprint of
tlie human buck ; or an exciting struggle by the equine gelding
for a supremacy to be perpetuated by iiis get! All this it would
seem is taken as matter of course. Men who have striven, with
some measure of success, to extend and improve Worcester, find
their work of development arrested by this obstacle — the most
complete example of hopeless inertia extant. It returns no reve-
nue to City, County, or State; it possesses, without utilizing, the
unearned increment from waste acres that would be better occu-
pied by liomesteads ; it blocks the path-way and diffusion of set-
tlement; it assumes to discharge duties that are more efliciently
performed by ourselves, leaving undone the things that it ought
to do ; and thus literally and actually cumbering the ground I
This Worcester County Horticultural Society of ours proposes a
display of Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables on the 5th daj' of Sep-
tember ; and can carry out its design if it will pay to the City and
County of Worcester, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, five
hundred or more dollars in taxes upon a portion of its estate that
is and must ever remain indivisible. The Worcester Agricultural
Society, whose earlier and wiser members advised and promoted
the formation of this Horticultural Society ; to encourage a paore

30 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

thorough prosecution and study of that comprehensive branch of
terrseculture ; yielding to bad counsel and under stress of mis-
management, also enters the lists and challenges a competition,
whose wrong intention is only surpassed by its absurdity. Yet,
for such rivalry in part, ill-judged and ungenerous, it draws from
the State treasury a bounty of six hundred dollars !

Smitten on both cheeks we have hitherto, in the phrase of the
prize-ring, come up smiling after our punishment. But has
patience or long-suffering, no limit? Or do we intend to pro-
portion our endurance to the power and will of others to shift
their proper load upon our over-burdened and galled shoulders !
Grant that Issachar was an ass! What reason does that supply,
in this nineteenth century, for exempting from their share of the
common liability, the countless Kitchens of Theology, with their
holy pots and kettles ; or Thirty acres of House-Lots, that a half-
dozen gentlemen from Groton, Salem, or Quoddy may, without
cost, pose, impose, repose ! illustrating by example, the pregnant
gospel of " addition, division, silence."

Despite invidious discrimination, we have hitherto, and to a
considerable degree, prospered. Our Society is no mendicant ;
and crawls under no table for mouldy crusts; nor yet for the
dogs to lick its sores ! It does insist, however, as it has the right
to do, that in the award of equal and exact justice under the
fundamental law its own case shall no longer be treated as an
exception. And if the opinion of the Society should accord with
the clear and fixed conviction of its Secretary, there will be no
halt, in our struggle for a recognition of our claim to equality
before the law, until the Supreme Judicial Court decides that the
honest, open ownership of real estate is less entitled to considera-
tion than a furtive investment in Federal bonds ; or that a Society
especially incorporated to "advance Science" is not a Scientific
Society !

All which is respectfully submitted,

by

EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN,

Secretary.
Worcester^ Worcester County., Mass.^
November 6, A. D. 1889.

REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

To THE Members of the

WoRCESTEK County Horticultural Society.

In presenting the customary annual report your Librarian does
not presume to make an extended one. He can only give the con-
dition of the Library, an account of how much the members of the
Society have availed themselves of its privileges, and the additions
in books, pamphlets, and reports during the year just closed.
The number of books and pamphlets taken by members is about
200, a somewhat smaller number than last year. A large num-
ber of the serial i)ublications lias been read and consulted in the
Library. A beginning has been made in binding which will be
continued ; and more shelf-room has been ordered which will soon
be in place. Your Librarian is well aware that Horticultural
reading is not confined entirely to our Library, as many of our
members subcribe annually for one or more Horticultural papers
or magazines.

It is very well known however that Horticultural literature is
limited, and but few elaborate works devoted solely to Horticul-
tural science can be obtained yearly, and what are published are
usually quite expensive, which puts it out of the power of the aver-
age reader to purchase, therefore it is evident to all that a Society
like this, which can afford to place upon its shelves all, or nearly
all of what is worth putting there, in this line for reference and
use by its members, is doing an incalculable amount of good.

Your Library Committee has been fortunate in procuring
a complete set of the Cottage Gardener (now published as the
Journal of Horticulture), at a very low price. The Society has
been a subscriber for this work for a long time, but there were
several volumes lacking in the series, and by this purchase the
missing volumes are made good.

32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

Your Librarian cannot omit to speak in terms of praise, for
the very valuable assistance which his associates on the Library
Committee have rendered him. He feels and knows that no
more faithful and conscientious work could have been done for
the Library than that which has been done by his co-laborers.
Without further remarks the following list is appended for your
more particular examination :

Keport of the Commissioner of Education for the year
1886-'87.

Bulletin, No. 3, on Tuberculosis ; from the Hatch Experiment
Station, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, January,
1889.

Fourth Inaugural Address of Hon. Samuel Winslow, Mayor
of Worcester.

Circular of Liformation, No. 5, 1888; from Bureau of Edu-
cation, on industrial education in the South ; by Rev. A. D. Mayo.

Reports from the Consuls of the United States, May, June,
July, August, September, November and December, 1888; Jan-
uary, February, April and May, 1889.

Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State
Agricultural Station, at Amherst, Mass.

Circular, No. 6, 1888; account of the Proceedings of the
Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association, at its Meeting in Washington, Feb. 14-16, 1888.

Second Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion, 1888.

The Road and the Road Side ; B. W. Potter.

Curtis Botanical Magazine, Vol. 44, 1888 ; Society.

Census of Massachusetts, 1885, Vols. 1 and 2, population and
social statistics ; Hon. H. L. Parker.

Agriculture of Massachusetts; Hon. H. L. Parker.

Census of Massachusetts, 1885; Manufactures, Fisheries and
Commerce; Hon. H. L. Parker.

Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture,
1887.

Rcjiort of the condition of Winter Grain, the condition of
farm animals and on freight rates of Transportation Companies ;
Dept. of Agriculture.

Bulletin, No. 44; on feeding Steers of different breeds ; from
Experiment Station, Agricultural College, Mich.

Bulletin, No. 45 ; Subject, Why not plant a Grove; from the
Department of Botany and Forestry, Agricultural College, Mich.

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 33

Bulletin, No. 43 ; being the Annual Report of the Director of
the Weather Service Department of the Agricultural College,
Mich.

First Annual Re])ort of the Hatch Experiment Station of the
Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.; January, 1889.

First Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station
of the Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

Bulletin for April, 1889, Ex. Station, Cornell University.
Ithaca, N. Y.

Annual Report of the Parks-Commission of the City of
Worcester, 1888 ; Edward Winslow Lincoln.

The Journal of Horticulture, Vols. 17 and 18; Third Scries.

Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Part
1 ; year 1888.

Index to Vol. 29 of the Consuls of the United States.

Circular of Information, No. 4 ; from Bureau of Education ; on
Education in South Carolina.

Circular of Information, No. 5 ; from Bureau of Education ; on
Education in Georgia.

Circular of Information, No. 6 ; from Bureau of Education; on
Education in Florida.

Circular of Information, No. 7 ; from Bureau of Education ; on
Education in Wisconsin.

Bulletin, No. 46 ; from Ex. Station, Agri. College, Mich. ; on
Potatoes, Roots, Fertilizers and Oats; March, 1889.

Bulletin, No. 47 ; from Ex. Station, Agri. College, Mich. ; on
Silos and Ensilage; April, 1889.

Bulletin, No. 48; from Ex. Station, Agri. College, Mich.; on
Potatoes, Kale, Squashes and Tomatoes; April, 1889.

Bulletin, No. 49 ; from Ex. Station, Agri. College, Mich. ; on
Chemical Composition of Cornstalks, Hay and Screenings ; May,
1889.

Bulletin, No. 50 ; from Ex. Station, Agri. College, Mich. ; on
The Grain Plant Louse; June, 1889.

Bulletin for July, 1889 ; Mass. Ex. Station ; on Commercial
Fertilizers.

Bulletin for July, 1889 ; from State Board of Health, Nash-
ville, Tenn.

The Garden's Story, 1889, by Geo. H. Elwanger ; Society.

Bulletin, No. 7; from Ex. Station, Cornell University; on the
Sprouting of Seeds.

Bulletin, No. 1 ; U. S. Department of Agriculture; Division
of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, on the English
Sparrow in North America, especially in its relations to Agricul-

3

34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

tare; prepared under the direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
Ornitliologist, by Walter B. Barrows, Assistant Ornithologist,
Wasliington, D. C, 1889.

The English Flower Garden; Second Ed., 1889; by Wm.
Robinson.

Consular Report, No. 106 ; July, 1889.

Bulletin, No. 9; Ex. Station, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. ;
on Windbreaks in their relations to Fruit growing.

Scientific Papers of Asa Gray; selected by Chas. Sprague Sar-
gent; 2 vols.; 1889.

The Cottage Gardener and the Journal of Horticulture from
1849 to 1886; 74 vols.

Bulletin, No. 6, Oct. 1889 ; from Hatch Ex. Station, Mass.
Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.

The American Florist ; Semi-Monthl}^ ; 1889; Society.

The American Garden ; Monthly; 1889; Society.

Gardener's Chronicle ; English Weekly ; 1889; Society.

The Garden ; English Weekly ; 1889 ; Society.

Gardening Illustrated ; English Weekly ; 1889 ; Society.

Garden and Forest; Weekly; 1889; Society,

The Country Gentleman ; Weekly ; 1889 ; Society.

The American Agriculturist; Monthly; 1889; Society.

The Agricultural Gazette; English Weekly; 1889; Society.

Vick's Monthly Magazine ; Society.

The Massachusetts Ploughman.

Popular Gardening ; Society.

The Pinetum Britannicum, a descriptive account of hardy
coniferous trees, cultivated in Great Britain ; three volumes ;
London and Edinburg, published by Peter Lawson & Son ;
Society.

Revue Horticole ; Paris; 1888; Society.

Catalogues received, 1889 : Landreth's Vegetal)le and Seed,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Hooper & Co., Seeds, London, Eng.; V. H.
Hallock & Son, Queens, N. Y.; R. & J. Farquhar & Co., Seeds,
Plants and Tools, Boston, Mass.; Peter Henderson & Co., New
York, N. Y.; Hovey & Co., Boston ; W. W. Rawson & Co.,
Yegetable and Flower Seeds, 34 South Market street, Boston,
Mass.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

CHARLES E. BROOKS,

X,ibra7'ian.
Hall of Flora,

JSTovemher 6, 1889.

REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

Charles E. Brooks in account with the Worcester County

Horticultural Society.

1888.

Nov. 1. To cash on hand $2,863 62

To cash received for rent of stores 3,800 00

To cash received at Chrysanthe-
mum Exhibition 64 55

To cash received at Rose Show. . 40 80

To cash received from new mem-
bers 10 00

To cash received from rent of

hall 2,485 69

Estate of Phylonzo Brown 476 10

Total $9,740 76

Cr.

By cash paid Premium Awards,

1888 $1,734 54

By cash paid judges of exhibits. . 156 00
By cash paid Mechanics Savings

Bank 1,500 00

By cash paid Mechanics' Savings

Bank, interest ' 62 50

By cash paid Worcester Gas Light

Company 218 10

36 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

By cash paid Chas. Hamilton,

printincr 229 56

B}' cash paid City of Worcester,

tax 512 00

By cash paid City of Worcester,

water 6 29

By cash paid for books and

papers 225 14

By casii paid for insurance 150 00

By cash paid J. S. Perkins (Hall

Ceres) 86 21

By cash paid F. W. Wellington

& Co., coal 59 50

By cash paid F. M. Marble. ... 50 00

By cash paid O. S. Kendall & Co. 21 78

By cash paid for advertising. ... 18 00

By cash paid A. E. Davis, photos 15 00

By cash paid Geo. W. Barton,

repairing roof 14 01

By cash paid Thomas B. Foss,

repairing roof 4 24

By cash paid Arba Pierce, ever-
green ... 11 70

By cash paid B. C. Jaques, re-
pairing doors 8 90

By cash paid Safe Deposit Com-

pany ,

10 00

By cash paid Putnam & Davis,

stationery 10 80

By cash paid J. Van Wormer &

Co., grates 3 60

By cash paid Clark, Sawyer &

Co., shades 6 75

By cash paid A. F^. Ballpu, var-
nishing doors ^. 8 98

By cash paid salaries 1,400 00

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 37

By cash paid extra labor and

sundry small bills 255 90

Total $6,779 50

Balance on hand 2,961 26

Total $9,740 76

November 16, 1888. The treasurer received from the execu-
tors of the estate of Francis H. Dewey, a check for $1,000,
which has been placed on interest in the Mechanics Savings
Bank to be known as the " Francis H. Dewey Fund," the inter-
est alone to be used in tlie purchase of ijooks for the library,
according to the terms of the bequest.

Respectfully submitted.

CHARLES E. BROOKS,

Treasurer .

3*

REPORT OF THE DELEGATE TO THE SESSION OF THE

AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY,

AT OCALA, FLORIDA.

To THE Members of the

Worcester County Horticultural Society.

Through tlie courtesy of tliis Society, as your accredited
delegate to the American Poinological Society, whicli lield its
22d l)iennial session at Ocala, Florida, the 20th, 21st and 22d
of February, 1889, I beg leave to make the following report:

In pursuance of an invitation to meet with the Florida
Horticultural Society, and the Florida International and
Semi-Tropical Exposition, at Ocala, Merriam County, mem-
bers of the American Pomological Society to tiie number of
ninety, from twent}^ States and Territories, and the Dominion of
Canada, reported at that place, and were not only most cor-
dially received by the Florida Horticultural Society, by His
Excellency Governor Fleming (who not being able to be present
transmitted his address by wire), the mayor of Ocala, and Presi-
dent Wilson of the Semi-Tropical Exposition, to their hospitali-
ties, but every courtesy was shown us that could be expected to
make our stay with them pleasant, to see the products of the
State, as shown by them, and learn the manner of their
cultivation.

Wednesday, February 20th, the business meeting was held at
Opera Hall at two o'clock, to hear the address of the 'President,
receive the credentials of members, and choose the officers of
the society. After listening to the able address of President
Berkmans, the following officers were chosen :

President^ J. P. Berkmans, of Macon, Ga.
Fimt Vice-President^ T. T. Lyon, of Michigan.
Treasurer^ Benjamin G. Smith, of Massachusetts.
Secretary^ A. A. Crozier, of Iowa.

1889.1 TEANSACTIONS. I "^ G r^ ^A

As the meeting was held at this season of f^e^ar, ^f^i»,ontn»^j^
earlier than nsiial, for the purpose of seeing aHJ'lfiaj-ning^^TC^J;
onr country could do in producing tropical frnits7SK^^6'r,§' now"^^
to be introduced in the reahn of the "Orange Queen," an(
tropical home, with all her retinue in the line of the citrus
family.

In the hall of exhibition we found lier in regal state and un-
disputed throne. We found with her, as with the peach, apple
and pear that improvements are continually going on in quality,
flavor and form. Tiie orange will soon be shipped to our mar-
ket with special names, such as "Homosassa Majorica," "Early
Oblong," "Sweet Seville," "Maltese Blood," "Noblesse," "Par-
son's Navel," and last but not least, "Washington Riverside,"
and many other names of less note. Tiiese names will be put
upon the parcels of boxes instead of the shippers or growers
alone. Every means were granted us to test the quality of the
different kinds, until some of us were obliged to succumb and cry
enough. When you take into consideration the hundred differ-
ent kinds, more or less, and perhaps as many friends of each,
you can form some idea of the herculean task we went through
(pleasant though). They have certain rules for testing the
merits or quality of each variety, with a scale of ten points of
merits; an orange loses one point for a peel or skin that is more
than one-eightii of an inch thick; if it is three-sixteenths of an
inch thick, two points; four seeds, or more, one point ; too much
acid, one or more points; too sweet, one point. Most of the
oranges we have here would not rate more than six or seven
points.

It is hardl}' fifteen years since this industry acquired promi-
nence. There were but a few hundred small groves twenty years
since, and now probably there are more than ten thousand.
The commercial advantage to railroad interests is vast; while to
fill one car it would take twenty-five acres of cotton, one acre of
oranges would fill the same ; or twenty-five acres would load a
train of twentj'-five or thirty cars.

Here allow me to make an extract from a paper read before this
meeting, on sweet oranges, by E. H. Hart of Federal Point, Fla.

40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

He says : "If we estimate the crop of Florida at present at tliree
million boxes, it requires ten thousand car loads of 300 boxes
to the car to move the crop ; and calculating the average freight
at sixty-six cents per box, the crop pays the railways two million
for freight alone. The value of box stuff used would be $390,-
000; the nails $30,000: the paper for wraps $120,000 ; labor in
gathering and packing $600,000 ; thus making an output of one
million one hundred and forty thousand dollars for simply pre-
paring the fruit for market."

Next comes the lemon crop, which is in its infancy, but which
bids fair to attain second place and rise to full grown commercial
importance. On this fruit I would refer you to a paper read
before this meeting by H. S. Kedney of Winter Park, to be
found in the "Florida Dispatch," the "Farmer's Fruit Grower,"
Thursday, Feb, 28th, 1889, or the Transactions of the American
Pomological Society, when pul)lished.

As we continued our search through the hall of the Florida
Horticultural Society, we found that there were many members
of the citrus family in the schedule. The display was enchant-
ing. The orange was shown in pyramids, triangles and all
manner of forms on the tables and walls of the hall, intermixed
with all the fruits and flowers and other productions of this trop-
ical peninsula of our great countr3\ First among these we will
mention the pomelo (or grape fruit), because it is so nearly iden-
tified with the orange. As an article of commerce it has
conquered a market of its own. It is very productive; the tree
looks very much like the orange ; in an orange grove it would
hardly be picked out from an orange tree by a causual observer.
It will sustain an enormous weight on its branches — from
ten to fifteen hundred pounds to the tree of twenty years
growth.

Next comes the Guava : As a fruit for jelly it bids fair to fill
the place now occupied by an imported article.

The Kaki, or Japan Persimmon is producing much interest with
fruit growers, but as it was not the season with it no fruit was
seen, but the trees were shown to us, with great hope for the
future.

1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 41

The Loquat, a Japan plum or Medlar : We were shown this
fruit upon the trees that were very large, and vigorous bearers ;
I should judge ten bushels to the tree. This fruit will soon be in
the market. This will be rather out of season, a plum in the
spring.

The Strawberry also has a natural place in her soil. This
fruit was shown ripe in boxes and also on vines in the semi-tropi-
cal building. One thing in favor of the strawberry here is its
length of season, which is nearly four months. The berries are
so long in maturing that the flesh is harder and therefore more
dense, and bears transporation better. Th^y come from Florida,
fifteen hundred miles, in better condition than from New Jersey,
two hundred miles from market.

The Pine Apple to quite an extent is grown here of very fine
flavor and large size. We saw the plants setting their fruit.
They are propagated by slips mostly. The pine apple is one of
the most important fruits grown in Florida.

The Banana is found in the southern portion of the State,
where it bids fair to compete with, or rival, some of the imported
fruit.

The Cocoanut is found in the region of the banana. The
three last named to be successfully grown must be below the
frost line.

A Peach has been found indigenous to the climate, bearing
the queer cognomen, '■'•Peentor It is doing wonders. Mr.
George L. Tabor claims to have shipped four hundred bushels in
one season. It is flat in shape, high color and when fully ripe is
very good. I saw some very fine trees of this variety full of
peaches the size of pullet's eggs.

Since writing the foregoing. Miss Bess Huestis, the owner of
these trees that I describe here, has received for seven bushels of
them $100.

The Le Conte pear is also grown here. The tree is the most
thrifty-growing of any pear tree yet found. Young trees will
grow from eight to ten feet in height in one season. I could
learn nothing of its fraitfulness, nor praise of its quality for
table fruit.

42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

The Fig, Olive, Date, Almond and many other tropical fruits
are grown here.

The Grape culture here is but in its first beginning. They
have a native called " Scuppernong," which reaches its southern
line only in tropical portions of the State, and its value as a wine
producing grape is fully recognized. This industry has already
passed out of the domestic stage and attained a commercial im-
portance which seems assured. From what I saw and heard I
have no doubt but foreign grapes can be grown successfully, and
such greenhouse grapes as " Black Hamburg " and the " Front-
ignan." As we have now discussed the more important fruits
that grow on the peninsula we will now relate as well as we can
how they appeared to us in orchard and grove.

As tropical fruits were to be considered more fully as shown
Tiere^ very little has been said concerning fruits grown in the
Middle and Northern States, and that will account for the dearth
of matter concerning them in this report. The delegates were
given free passes on the railroads all over the State, for ten days
to be made up in parties of fifteen or twenty members, with
some railroad oflicials accompanying them.

The society held eight sessions : three on Wednesday, three on
Thursday and two on Friday. The time was largely taken up
by the consideration of the papers announced in the pro-
gramme.

The societ}'^ suggested, in the form of a resolution, that the
agricultural experimental stations throughout the Union, should
give special attention to the raising of seedling fruits, upon the
most approved and scientific principles, for dissemination in their
respective localities ; and that originators of new varieties of
fruits, be requested to send specimens of their plants to the
agricultural experimental stations, to be tested for their adapta-
tion to the localities wherein the stations are located, and that
the results of such tests be published in the station reports.

The interest in the exhibit centered in the award of the
"Wilder" medals, which are only given where exceptional merit
is shown. Silver "Wilder" medals were awarded to Lake
county, Shipper's Union, Marion county, Sumter county, Lee

1889.] TEANSACTIONS. 43

county, Rev. Lyraan Phelps, Mr. E. H. Hart and Mr. Dudley
"W. Adams.

Gold " Wilder" medals were awarded Citrus county, Polk and
Volusia counties, Mayor O. P. Rooks and Mr. E. S. Hubbard.

The place of the next meeting was discussed. Chicago seemed
to be the choice of the members present, but the matter was left
to the executive committee,

Friday the 22d, at one o'clock, the Pomological Society
brought their meeting to a close, and by invitation of Mr. Harris
at two o'clock we all took the cars to visit his grove situated in
Citra, about twenty miles north of Ocala. This is the largest
grovfi in the State. It entitles the owner to the name of
" Orange King." It contains one hundred and ninety acres, and
puts upon the market this year fifty-three thousand boxes, which
would fill one hundred and seventy-six cars. It was a sight to
behold. Five acres were left unpicked, I suppose purposely, for
the Pomological felloios. It was said to Peter of old, "rise, kill
and eat ; " to us it was said, *' pick and eat," and we obeyed the
command without a murmur. Bishop Hoyt's grove of one hun-
dred and fifty acres is separated from this by a railroad. These
groves are about twenty years old, say twenty to thirty feet high,
on hommock land ; they have required no fertilizer, or very little ;
clean culture prevails. We found in this grove a "Scupper-
nong " grape vine, which measured fifteen inches in diameter.
It grew upon a very large tree, sixty feet before you reached a
limb. Some one remarked, which supports, the tree or vine?

The next day we spent the morning at Silver Springs, which is
a wonderful sight ; a river formed by one opening of springs
welling such a wonderful quantity of water, so large and deep
that large vessels and steamboats could come close to the banks
at the head of the spring, and sail nine miles into the Ocklawaha
river, and so clear that at a depth of forty feet a ten cent piece
could be seen. This delightful tour was continued through most
of the orange growing belt of the State, with this conclusion,
that the peninsula of Florida is well adapted for growing of
citrus fruits.

Another industry was brought to our notice, that of sugar.
This is looked upon so favorably that a company has been

44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889.

formed, who have bought a million acres in Osceola, Folk and
Desoto counties, and have a thousand acres in sugar cane this
year. The president of the company, who had been engaged in
the sugar planting in Louisiana, claimed that the sugar cane
raised in Florida was the better of the two. He reports forty
tons to the acre, one hundred and eighty pounds to the ton.

For the first time in the history of the American Fomological
Society, it has turned aside from its former custom of holding
its sessions in September, to meet the wants of the Middle and
Northern States, to join with an extreme Southern State, and be
introduced to her pomological claims upon this organization.
What she has shown in her infancy argues well for her future.

"Which is respectfully submitted.

F. M. MARBLE.

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