ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 65 



and succeeded in getting up a festival in October, 1810, at Pitts- 

 field, which was attended by more than 3000 persons. The display 

 of animals was large, and the following day a procession was 

 formed, which, for the time and place, was an imposing one. A 

 plough, drawn by sixty oxen, was held by the oldest man in the 

 county, followed by a long procession of farmers wearing wheat 

 cockades in their hats. On a moveable stage was a hand-cloth 

 loom and a spinning jenny, worked by English operatives, and on 

 another were displayed the various industrial products of the 

 county, followed by a body of mechanics, the effect of the proces- 

 sion being heightened by a band of music and a display of ban- 

 ners, inscribed with the emblems of agriculture and manufactures. 

 After marching around the town the procession proceeded to the 



'principal church, where, after prayer, the singing of a festal ode 

 in praise of agriculture, and an address by Watson, the premiums, 

 which were placed upon a table beneath the pulpit, were publicly 



■ presented by the judges to the successful competitors. In addition 

 to these ceremonies the skill of the younger farmers was tested by 

 a series of ploughing matches, and the festivities were closed in 

 the evening by an agricultural ball. Ela'ed by the success of this 

 first experiment, Watson sought to produce a greater effect the 

 following year by a more extensive offer of premiums. But $10 had 

 been raised for that purpose on the first occasion, which had been 

 bestowed exclusively for animals, and he was desirous of offering pre- 

 miums for the best specimens of domestic manufacture. But the 

 county was poor, and he wrote to his friend John Adams, to use his 

 influence to raise some money in Boston, in aid of an object in which 

 the country at large had so deep an interest. The reply of the Ex- 

 President, was pithy and to the point : "You will get no aid from 

 Boston, commerce, literature, theology, medicine, the university 

 and universal politics are against you," showing how little the spirit 

 of the times was then in favor of encouraging those manufactures 

 which have since become such a source of wealth to New England. 

 Notwithstanding the letter, Watson went himself to Boston and 

 spent a month there, as he said, soliciting charity for a great pub- 

 lic object, but without obtaining an3^thing. He returned and re- 

 sumed his efforts in Berkshire with more success. Exhibitions 

 followed in 1812 and 1813, at the last of which 63 premiums, 

 amounting to |400. were awarded, 17 for agricultural products, 20 

 for animals, and 26 for domestic manufactures. 



After nine years of trial Watson learned that a man who has 

 had no previous experience can scarcely hope after fifty to become 

 a farmer, and the pursuit was attended with so many diffi- 

 [Am. Inst.J E 



