SKETCH OF FRANKLIN COUNTY. 



PUBLIC MEETING OF THE BOARD 



AT GREENFIELD. 



The country meeting of the Board 'for 1879 was held at 

 the town-hall in Greenfield, on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of De- 

 cember. James S. Grinnell, Esq., a member of the Board, 

 and Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, called the 

 meeting to order at twelve o'clock on Tuesday, Dec. 2, and 

 read the opening address, as follows : — 



Gentlemen oe the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture, — As chairman of the committee of arrangements 

 for this meeting of the Board, it is my duty to call this 

 assemblage to order, and as the president of the Franklin- 

 county Agricultural Society, at whose invitation you have 

 honored us, it gives me much pleasure to welcome you to the 

 county of Franklin, and to this its county-seat. 



Fourteen years ago this month, this Board held the second 

 of these " country meetings " here, at which the lamented 

 Agassiz, instructive and earnest in every thing he essayed, 

 was the leading . character, assisted by others of less distinc- 

 tion, some of whom have gone from among us, while others 

 are here to aid and instruct us to-day. 



That meeting, well remembered, left germs of thought 

 which rooted, and bore fruit ; and the names, the persons, 

 and the words, of those who represented you at that meeting, 

 have not been forgotten in this valley, nor on the farthest 

 hillsides that encompass us about. 



It has become customary on these occasions, in the opening 

 address to give a brief sketch of that portion of the State, 

 and of its progressive agriculture, and of the society, where 

 you are invited ; a chief element of good in these gatherings 

 being, not only to disseminate in one part of the Common- 

 wealth the opinions and results of the experience of farm- 

 ers from other localities, but also to give to those who attend 

 from abroad a more thorough acquaintance with the country 

 and people where they visit. 



The county of Franklin was set off from the old county 

 of Hampshire, and organized as such, by an act of the Gen- 



