68 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



tige was entertained. It was enough that somebody 

 had appeared who could lift the torch, for the en- 

 lightenment of the agriculturalists 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. 



If the western end of the State was willing to lead 

 off in trying an experiment, no doubt the east and the 

 centre took pleasure in the fact, with a purpose to 

 copy, should the experiment prove successful. That 

 it was an experiment sufficiently appears in the ac- 

 counts given by Mr. Watson himself of it, and of his 

 tremulous apprehension lest certain phases of the 

 enterprise should fail of popular approval and sup- 

 port. Although such shows in England, guided and 

 patronized by dukes and earls, and perhaps princes of 

 the royal blood, had been successful, it did not neces- 

 sarily follow that the results would be the same in 

 dealing with the plain farmers of Massachusetts. One 

 bent on finding something hidden or disguised in the 

 motives to action or non-action on the part of the 

 trustees of the Massachusetts society might better, 

 perhaps, search in another direction. In its early his- 

 tory the society had prejudices enough to overcome, 

 and epithets enough to endure without exposing itself, 

 needlessly, to the embarrassment of the one or the 

 other. The proposal to give a cattle show was first 

 made to its trustees, and discussed by them, in 1801. 

 Amidst the hot politics that raged, during the follow- 

 ing decade, it may have been apprehended that any 

 step, of the kind proposed, would be declaimed about 

 as an attempt to introduce "a monarchical institu- 

 tion." But after the republican farmers of Berkshire 

 had set the example, that fear, if it had existed, ceased. 



The suggestion made in 1801 was that the show 



