OPENING ADDRESS. 9 



previously, however, provided a room for its use in this 

 building. 



Recognizing the fact that the past is the security for the 

 future, the town, at its annual meeting in 1881, voted to pro- 

 cure the publication of a history of the town, and appropriated 

 money and appointed a committee to carry that vote into 

 effect ; the result of which is a history by one of the native 

 citizens of the village, from material previousl}^ gathered, 

 and which I have been assured by our venerable associate. 

 Col. Wilder, is the best-written town history he has ever 

 seen. I think you will agree with me that it could have no 

 higher commendation. I have drawn from it quite freely 

 for the few historical facts I have presented. 



But you, perhaps, are more interested in the agriculture 

 of this locality than in its other features. I can say of that, 

 in a general way, that it is very simple and its scope very 

 limited. The earlier settlers raised wheat, corn, oats and 

 flax, made some pork, and fottened considerable beef on their 

 nutritious pastures ; the latter being taken by drovers to the 

 distant markets, while the other surplus products were 

 mostly carried to the Hudson River, about thirty miles 

 distant, to be shipped thence to New York, the farmers 

 bringing back, for the country merchants, such goods as their 

 trade required, and bringing also, considerable quantities of 

 Nova Scotia plaster, which was extensively used as a fer- 

 tilizer. This system was gradually changed. The raising of 

 wheat and flax was practically abandoned and dairy and 

 sheep husbandry became the principal factors in the agricul- 

 ture of this region, to be modified later, by dropping the 

 sheep and substituting what may be best described as mixed 

 farmino: ; and such is the agriculture of Southern Berkshire 

 to-day, with the addition of stock raising to a limited extent. 



With not an incorporated city within the county, with no 

 large manufacturing villages accessible, nearly a hundred 

 miles from any available market, with no surplus labor 

 obtainable, the range of successful farming seems exceedingly 

 narrow and calls for the exercise of industry, skill and econ- 

 omy. To encourage these qualities the Housatonic Agri- 

 cultural Society was organized, and although its incorpora- 

 tion was opposed by the older society of the county — the 



