FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 57 



ish the merit of Mr. Watson, Mr. Gold, Mr. Melville, and 

 Mr. Mackay, and the other " gentlemen farmers " of Berk- 

 shire. We know and acknowledge that they have done 

 everything in their power to promote an enlightened and 

 improved course of agriculture, and surely they may be 

 contented with this merit, without wishing to deprive other 

 societies of their humble share in this common cause. 



The character of the witness sufficiently supports the 

 statement ; but one who should critically read the early 

 records of the society, though pursuing his task in an 

 " unkind " spirit, would be persuaded, that, whatever 

 motives had sway with the board of trustees, neither pre- 

 tence of self-importance nor pride of section was among 

 them. They gave place, at once, to anybody who would 

 lead the way, whatsoever the distance or the point of the 

 compass from which he approached. No clergyman could 

 be so obscure in fame, or pursue his calling so remote from 

 towns, but that his discourse, if befitting to the hour, found 

 place at the earliest opportunity in the society's periodical, 

 and himself prompt award of its first premium. Did 

 scientific merit manifest itself in distant " Down East ? Jr 

 It was welcomed and rewarded, and given opportunity and 

 scope in the gardens of Harvard College. Was it ascer- 

 tained that a New Hampshire man had made a more excel- 

 lent churn ; that a Vermont man had superior knowledge 

 about raising barley and brewing farm-house beer ; that a 

 Connecticut man had shown special enterprise in importing 

 better sheep ; that a New Yorker had produced the ideal 

 plough ? Though not specifically chartered to that end, 

 the society sent its medal or other encomium across the 

 State border in each instance, precisely as if the inventor 

 or discoverer had lived within sight of the State House 

 dome. No dubious thought about local prestige was enter- 

 tained. It was enough that somebody had appeared who 

 could lift the torch, for the enlightenment of the agricultu- 

 ralists of Massachusetts, a hand-breadth higher. All this 

 being so, it is not supposable that the society had any 

 peculiar jealousy about the doings at Berkshire. 



