20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



PUBLIC MEETING OF THE BOARD 



AT BRIDGEWATER. 



The country meeting of the Board for 1881 was held at 

 the town-hall in Bridgewater on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of 

 December. Mr. John Lane of East Bridgewater, president 

 of the Plymouth County Agricultural Society, called the 

 meeting to order on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at ten o'clock. He 

 said, — 



In behalf of the Plymouth County Agricultural Society, 

 I bid the State Board welcome to this town. Also the West 

 Bridgewater Farmers' Club bid you all welcome. The inhab- 

 itants of East Bridgewater, where I reside, also bid you 

 welcome. 



I will now introduce to you Dr. L. G. Lowe of Bridge- 

 water, who will deliver the opening address. 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



BY DK. L. G. T-OWE. 



Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture, 

 AND Farmers of Massachusetts, — We bid you a hearty 

 welcome to the old town of Bridgewater. 



Although as regards age and reputation it cannot be com- 

 pared to that venerable town in the eastern part of the 

 county which was settled in 1620, and to which our State 

 and our Nation are so much indebted for their growth and 

 prosperity, Bridgewater can justly claim to be the oldest 

 interior settlement in Plymouth County. 



It was originally a plantation belonging to Duxbury, hav- 

 ing been purchased as such, in the year 1649, of the sachem 

 Ousnamequi, for the following consideration : viz., seven 

 coats (a yard and a half in a coat), nine hatchets, eight hoes, 

 twenty knives, four moose, and ten yards and a half of cotton. 



This plantation was incorporated as a distinct town in the 

 year 1656. As incorporated, the territory included, with 

 some slight variation in boundaries, the area now covered l)y 

 Brocktoft (formerly North liridgewater), East Bridgewater, 



