122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cenarj matters of common trade ; they have a higher and nobler 

 ann, which they are fast accomplishing — that of elevating the 

 rural population in social position, in virtue and intelligence, 

 and consequently in power over tlie destinies of tliis great 

 nation. Tliey have already driven out the coarser rural fair of 

 an earlier day, the offspring of the old country, where games 

 and racing, and all their accompaniments, made up the spirit 

 of the day ; and they have, in a great measure, supplanted that 

 military spirit Avliich existed and flourished, because men 

 could find no other outlet for that recreation which our natures 

 imperatively demand. 



The manner in which your delegate was received and enter- 

 tained, shows the appreciation in which the Board is held. 

 Nothing was left undone on the part of ofiicers and members 

 to make his visit among their people one of the most happy 

 character. 



So the Hampshire Show was a successful one, because it was 

 constructed upon principles which will make men better and 

 happier — a rational Holiday, which should be kept pure from 

 all distractino- influences of whatever name. 



'O 



Simon Brown. 



BERKSHIRE. 



The forty-fifth anniversary of the Berkshire Agricultural 

 Society took place at Pittsfield, on the od, 4th and 5th days of 

 October. All the exhibitions, and all the exercises of the whole 

 three days, including the ball on the evening of the third day, 

 were on the grounds of the society. 



The show tliis year was the first under important changes, 

 and new arrangements of the society. They had purchased and 

 enclosed thirty acres of land, erected yards and stables, laid out 

 and graded a fine trotting course, introduced water in abun- 

 dance, and constructed a building in the form of a T, eacli part 

 ninety feet in length, and about fifty feet wide. On the roof is 

 a deck with balustrades, aflbrding space for some ten or fifteen 



