GOOD LAND— GOOD CATTLE. 16 



good service, and where his posterity make the best herds of 

 high grade Durhams that it has ever been my pleasure to see. 

 The Middlefield and Shelburne farmers raised their broad-hipped 

 Durhams mainly by the agency of grass, with little aid from 

 grain. What one town has done, another may do. What two 

 towns have done, all may do. As Joseph Anderson, who im- 

 ported the Roan Duke into Shelburne, said to us last fall : " In 

 order to have good cattle, we must have good land. My first 

 effort when I took this old rough farm, was to improve the land. 

 My crops acted on the stock, and the stock reacted on the crops, 

 and the action and reaction have been continually progressing." 

 This is the right style for farming, both for hill and valley. 



But I will not trespass on your time. Again bidding you wel- 

 come, and hoping that Berkshire farming will receive a great 

 impulse from your deliberations, I introduce to you Mr. Richard 

 Goomand, president of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, who 

 is a lawyer by profession, but a farmer from choice. He was 

 not so fortunate as to be to the manor of Berkshire born, but 

 when he came to the years of discretion, was wise enough to 

 select for his home one of the most beautiful locations in the 

 county, where among his books and his herds, he sets us an 

 example not of " ease with dignity," but of skilful industry and 

 busy research, and having a fluent tongue and limber pen, is 

 ever ready to communicate the results of his investigations, and 

 we feel much obliged to him for thus identifying himself with 

 all the great interests of the county. 



Richard Goodman, of Lenox. — The formal manner in which 

 I have been introduced by my friend, Mr. Hyde, might lead you 

 to expect a formal speech from me ; but there is neither the 

 time nor the opportunity for me to indulge in any extended 

 remarks ; and it is hardly worth while to reiterate the welcome 

 which has been extended to you by Mr. Hyde. But as the rep- 

 resentative of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, one of the 

 oldest in the State, composed not only of farmers, but of man- 

 ufacturers and others, who have an interest directly in farming, 

 and also an interest in the prosperity of the county and the 

 State, I welcome you here among the hills of Berkshire. It has 

 been the custom of our southern friends, of more fervid climes, 

 to welcome their guests "with bloody hands to hospitable 

 graves." But we welcome you to-day with the white mantle of 



