considered the best way. His perseverance under difficulties, his planning for the 

 improvement of these farms, for the best way in which to aid the intelligence and 

 promote the material interests of his fellow citizens, will always be remembered 

 with appreciation. The success of your society the pride of his life work, the 

 model for all others, bears witness to his forethought. He lived to witness its great 

 success and the success of many others throughout the Union, modeled after its 

 plan, and on its twenty-seventh anniversary came back to give his counsel and re- 

 ceive the plaudits of a grateful community. No more fitting epitaph could be writ- 

 ten than appears on the monument beside his'[last resting place : "The founder 

 and first president of the Berkshire Agricultural Society." His efforts and of 

 those associated with him were to improve the agricultural and domestic manu- 

 facturing interests of the county. The charter obtained Feb. 25th, 181 1, read, 

 "for the promotion of agriculture and manufactures." The seal of the society 

 was a ram and a sheaf. 



At your first cattle show President Watson, while recognizing the aim of the 

 society to diffuse information, excite competition make experiments in the hope of 

 preventing the decline of agriculture, and with the aim of renewing the impover- 

 ished soil, also congratulated his hearers on the introduction of a new breed of 

 sheep and predicted the growth of woolen manufacturing in Berkshire. Among 

 other reasons he wished manufacturing established to furnish employment and to 

 check the spirit of emigration, which he claimed as a reason why the population 

 then remained so nearly stationary : 



Those early associated with the society recognized the importance of manufac- 

 turing establishments (as distinguished from domestic manufactures) in connection 

 with farming, and in 1820, in the annual address delivered by the President, Judge 

 William Walker, we find this significant language : 



"The great importance of manufactures, as subservient to agriculture, and the 

 general interest at this period, and in this section of the country, ought not to be 

 passed over in silence. Manufactures stimulate the industry, and augment the re- 

 sources of a country ; they afford to husbandmen a steady home market, which is 

 important to enable him to make accurate calculations ; they render £f foreign mar- 

 ket less fluctuating than when the whole surplus of agricultural products is thrown 

 into it at once ; they retain the capital of the manufacturer in the country, and 

 draw a considerable proportion of it into circulation; they create a market for ar. 

 tides of domestic growth very convenient for the husbandman to cultivate, and for 

 which there is no foreign demand; they afford employment and comfortable support 

 to many; they open to a free people, where every individual chooses his occupation, 

 a greater variety in the objects of choice, enabling him to select that best adapted 

 to his peculiar habits and genius; they induce a habit of close calculation and ac- 

 curate reasoning, friendly to the improvement of the intellectual powers. By com- 

 bining the interests of different pursuits, they cement society, and harmonize the 

 whole; they add greatly to the value of the land in the vicinity of their establish- 

 ments, and increase the demand for it. The intelligent agriculturist and land 

 holder will hail their prosperity and cherish them as their most efficient support' 



ers." 



