OPENING ADDRESS. 11 



foct apart. Eacli competitor is to give notioe in the tnonth of August, 

 187o, to the Secretary of the Ilousatonic Agricultural Society that he is 

 a competitor for the above premiums. lu tiic month of September fol- 

 lowing, the trees to be viewed by a committee of three men, one from 

 each of the towns of StocI<briilgc, Shefiiu'kl and Egremont, to be ap- 

 pointed therefor by the executive committee of the Ilousatonic Agricul- 

 tural Society. No one shall be entitled to receive the tirst premium 

 ($100) wlio does not show at least 75 trees; or the second premium 

 ($60) wlio does not show at least 45 trees; or the third premium ($10) 

 who docs not show at least 30 trees, living and growing at the time of 

 such view. Tiio committee, in awarding tlie premiums shall consider, 

 among other things, the number, kind, size and symmetry of tlie trees, 

 and the award shall be final and absolute." 



The awards were made aiid the premiums paid in accord- 

 ance with that offer, and not only for the liberality ot the 

 gift, but for the opportunity which his example suggests to 

 others, the name of Calvin Rood of Great Barrington, de- 

 serves to be gratefully remembered by the generations who 

 are to enjoy the results of his disinterested munificence. 

 Actiug upon the stiggestion thus offered, the Ilousatonic 

 Society have, twice at least, offered premiums of $100, for 

 the same purpose and on similar conditions, except that the 

 limits of competition extended throughout the county ; and 

 in the autumn of 1879, I had the pleasure of acting as com- 

 mittee to award the Society's premium, and found as the 

 direct result of that offer more than six hundred trees set 

 and being cared for in compliance with the conditions im- 

 posed. Who can doubt that some of those trees will beau- 

 tify and make pleasant the waysides of Berkshire, when 

 those who planted them shall have been long forgotten? 



I have, gentlemen, imperfectly outlined a few events in the 

 history of the town and of the Society whose guests you are. 



Mr. Joseph A. Klixe, President of the Housatonic Agri- 

 cultural Society, was then introduced, and spoke as follows : 



ADDRESS OF Mu. JOSEril A. KLINE. 



Gentlemen of tlie Board of Agriculture^ — I see men be- 

 fore me whose hair is white with threescore years and ten, 

 who have been identified with this Board from its birth, and 

 whose efforts, in co-operation with those of the other mem- 



