OPENING ADDRESS. 11 



feet apart. Each competitor is to give notice in the month of August, 

 187/), to (he Secretary of the Ilou^atonic Agricultural Society tliat he is 

 a competitor lor the above premiums. In the month of September fol- 

 lowing, the trees to be vicnved i)y a committee of thrc(; men, one from 

 eacii of the towns of Stockbriilge, Sheflu^ld and Egremont, to be ap- 

 pointed therefor by tho executive committee of the llousatonic Agricul- 

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

 ($100) who does not show at least 75 trees; or tho second premium 

 ($G0) who does not show at least 45 trees; or the third premium ($10) 

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

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

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

 and the award shall be final and absolute." 



The awards were made and the premiums paid in accord- 

 ance with that olier, and not only for the liberality of the 

 gift, but for the opportunity which his example sugircsts to 

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

 serves to be gratefully remembered by the generations Avho 

 are to enjoy the results of his disinterested munificence. 

 Acting upon the suggestion thus offered, the Housatonic 

 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 autunm 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, Avhen 

 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. Kline, President of the Houstitonic Agri- 

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



ADDRESS OF Mr. JOSEPPI A. KLINE. 



Gentlemen of tJie 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- 



