ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 63 



the State. The Society, for the promotion of the useful arts, was 

 authorized to award the three highest, and the Judges of the 

 County Courts were empowered to award in their respective coun- 

 ties premiums varying from eighty to thirty doHars, and this law 

 was continued in force by successive enactments until 1814, involv- 

 ing an entire expenditure on the part of the State, for this purpose, 

 of over twenty thousand dollars. The Society for the promotion of 

 the useful arts declared that the giving of these premiums had had 

 a most beneficial eflect, surpassing even their most sanguine ex- 

 pectations, and they memorialised the Legislature to continue the 

 practice and extend it to other objects, but tJje public treasury was 

 then in a state demanding the most rigid economy, and a few years 

 elapsed before any further provision for such a purpose was made. 

 The first attempt to establish an industrial exhibition in the 

 United States occurred in 1811, the merit of originating which be- 

 longs to Elkanah Watson. Watson had been engaged until his fiftieth 

 year in mercantile pursuits, leading a very active life marked by 

 those alternations of fortune, of success and misadventure, which, 

 in this country especially, is so frequently the lot of the enterpris- 

 ing merchant. Weary of the cares of business and coveting that 

 repose which is sought in rural occupations, he retired to Massa- 

 chusetts, his native State, and purchased a farm in the county of 

 Berkshire, near Pittsfield, intending to pass the remainder of his 

 life in agricultural pursuits. Here he gave himself up earnestly to 

 his new occupation, engaging in experiments to improve the breed 

 of animals, and introducing edible fish into the lakes and streams 

 about him. A man may change his mode of life and take up some 

 new avocation, but he cannot as readily change long settled 

 habits. After passing two or three years in this rural retreat 

 the former merchant began to feel the desire for a wider sphere of 

 activity; and a slight circumstance pointed it out to him. He had 

 purchased a pair of merino sheep, and with the view of drawing the 

 attention of the people of Berkshire to this important breed, he ex- 

 hibited them for a day on the public square at Pittsfield, where 

 they attracted a great deal of attention. This incident suggested 

 to his fertile mind an idea, " K two animals," he reasoned, "excites 

 80 much interest, how much greater would be the efliect of an exhi- 

 bition of different kinds of animals." It occurred to him that an 

 annual display at Pittsfield of the best animals in the county would 

 create a spirit of emulation among the farmers, wliich might lead 

 them to take greater interest in the improvement of their stock. 

 And as the idea enlarged upon his mind the additional suggestion 

 arose of making it still more useful by uniting with it an exhibi- 



