xxxii APPENDIX. ' • 



at defiance all attempts at sanitary reform. The production of the other, 

 on the contrary, leads one to the fresh clover pastures where the bees 

 sing. It takes you to the side of the motherly animal who offers you for 

 the mere pressure of the hand, and the softer and cleaner the better, a 

 pi'oduction freighted with the aroma of nature's choicest compounds ; then 

 to the dairy-room, cool and sweet, and to the various processes which 

 convert the flowing nectar into golden globules fit for the banquet of a 

 king. Follow it now to its use, and you will see that it ministers to 

 nothing but the legitimate wants of man ; that it goes only where civil- 

 ization and refinement go. It finds its place- by the side of " the cup 

 that cheers but not inebriates," making itself at once the crown and 

 solace of the board. There were some fifty entries in this department, 

 and I have no better wish for the exhibition than that for fifty years to 

 come they may never exchange this wholesome product for the cultiva- 

 tion of a plant that is ah'eady " nigh unto cursing, and whose end is to 

 be burned." 



In my further examination of the hall, I found the usual variety of 

 contributions, though of course they were not all of equal excellence, 

 The Indian corn was fine ; some specimens of twelve-rowed being equal 

 to any I ever saw. This is no more, perhaps, than might be expected 

 in a county which boasts the present season, a field of sixty acres in 

 one body. 



The exhibitions of vegetables was fair, but not remarkable. 



In the department of fruit I noticed, particularly, fine specimens of 

 peaches and grapes.. Of the latter an exliibition of ten varieties labelled 

 " Thompson's Seedlings," particularly attracted my attention. Not 

 having seen the exhibition, I can say nothing of their peculiar qualities, 

 but, in appearance, they compared favorably with most of the seedlings 

 that are now coming into popular favor. 



Tlie show of domestic manufactures was no way remarkable. I shall 

 by no means attribute this to any want of industry or skill on the part 

 of the fair women of Berkshire County, but rather to some of those 

 untoward chances which sometimes attend the best efforts. 



It is pleasant to see that among the fine tastes whose cultivation is on 

 the increase among us, flowers are fast taking the place they so well 

 deserve. The managers of the Housatonic Society are doing a Avise 

 thing in introducing them into the hall of exhibition. Their exact use- 

 fulness, indeed, it may be hard to define, because the impressions they 

 make arc evanescent and etherial like themselves; but there is no doubt 

 that in the wise economy of Him who creates beauty for its own sake, 

 and has given to man the answering faculty of admiration, certainly 

 there seems to be no doubt that the grateful interchange of the two, 

 tends only to the cultivation of those higher forms of social life which 



