BERKSHIRE COUNTY. 13 



" the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places, and that we 

 have a goodly heritage." I have traversed the length and 

 breadth of the county several times, have visited all the towns, 

 and examined the farms and crops in most of them, and shared 

 the hospitality of many of the citizens, and am free to say that, 

 in my limited range of travel through the world, I have no- 

 where found more comfortable homes, better livers, nor more 

 intelligent citizens. Much of our soil is rocky, and abounds in 

 cold springs ; but when the rocks are blasted out, and the super- 

 fluous water drained off, it produces luxuriant crops, especially 

 of grass. We have long been famous for our butter and cheese 

 dairies, and are now sending large quantities of milk to New 

 York. I am sorry to add that in many of our mountain towns, 

 the pastures have degenerated through neglect, and will not 

 support the stock they once did. The mowing lots have received 

 all the manure of the farm, and are in good condition ; but the 

 pastures, exhausted of the proper nutriment for grasses, have 

 resolved on a rotation of crops, and are producing hard-hacks, 

 brakes and alders. If any gentleman of the Board can stimu- 

 late our farmers to better care of their grazing lots, and teach 

 us how to restore them to their former sweet herbage, he will 

 be doing the county a good service. 



Agriculture was formerly the leading pursuit of our popula- 

 tion, but the war of 1812 brought in some manufactures, 

 which have steadily increased in importance, till the products 

 of the loom, the anvil, and the Fourdrinier machine, probably 

 now outvalue those of the soil. A little local jealousy may 

 have sometimes sprung up between these branches of industry, 

 but it was entirely groundless, and they now move on in perfect 

 harmony, mutually sustaining and encouraging each other. 

 We have found that where manufactures flourish, there agri- 

 culture flourishes. There is no market equal to the home mar- 

 ket. In and around our manufacturing villages population 

 clusters, and real estate rises almost to fabulous prices, while 

 on the hill towns the population is decreasing, and farms can be 

 bought for less than the cost of the buildings, and in some cases 

 for about the cost of the fences. It is said that half the popu- 

 lation, and half the wealth of the county, are now concentrated 

 in the four manufacturing towns of Adams, Pittsfield, Lee and 

 Great Barrington. Our ancestors came from Cape Cod, Rhode 



