224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



to the wealth of the State in any one year than does the present defec- 

 tive and unskilful mode of cultivation, the want of adaptation to soil and 

 climate, except by chance, and the superabundance of one kind, at the 

 expense of othei*s more needed and much more profitable. 



Repeat this annual estimate year after year for ten years, then for a 

 hundred, and so on ad infinitum, and a proper realization of wbat our State 

 is losing by neglecting to provide, or assist in providing, a thorough sys- 

 tem for the collection and distribution of her agricultural statistics. 



Section five of the Act of March twelfth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 three, organizing this department and defining its duties, reads as fol- 

 lows : 



" The Board of Agriculture shall use all suitable means to collect and 

 diffuse all classes of information calculated to aid in the development of 

 the agricultural, stock-raising, mineral, mechanical, and manufacturing 

 resources of the State ; shall hold an annual exhibition of the industry 

 and products of the State, and on or before the first day of January of 

 each year in which the Legislature shall be in regular session, they shall 

 furnish to the Governor' a full and detailed account of all its transactions, 

 including all the facts elicited, statistics collected, and information gained on 

 the subject for w T hich it exists; unci, also, a distinct financial account of 

 all funds received, from whatever source, and of every expenditure for 

 whatever purpose, together with such suggestions as experience and 

 good policy shall dictate for the advancement of the best interests of the 

 State ; the said reports to be treated as other State documents. " 



The duties of the department are thus clearly defined, but the means 

 for the accomplishment of those duties were left unprovided. Prompted 

 by the considerations set forth in the preceding portions of this article, 

 and with a view to supply the necessary means and machinery for the 

 performance of these important duties in a correct and reliable manner, 

 the Secretary, acting under the direction of the Board of Agriculture, 

 prepared a bill, the operations of which, had it passed, in conjunction 

 with a system of correspondence with intelligent and reliable persons in 

 the different counties, relating to the state of the weather and the appear- 

 ance and prospects of the crops, and the periodical issuance of circulars 

 containing in a condensed form the information thus gained, would have 

 accomplished, it is believed, in a few years, an entire revolution in the 

 mode of conducting the agricultural operations of the State. 



Having obtained for it the hearty approval of nearly all the organized 

 District and County Agricultural Societies in the State, he submitted 

 the same to the Committee on Agriculture in the Assembly of the last 

 Legislature. The committee unanimously recommended the same, and 

 introduced it as a substitute for a bill previously introduced by the Hon- 

 orable Mr. Dodson, of Lake, having the same object in view. Unex- 

 pectedly, the bill met with violent opposition from many of the repre- 

 sentatives of the mining counties, for the alleged reasons that it sought 

 Lo gather statistics in regard to the mines and mining interests of the 

 State, which was impractical and unnecessary, and that it would entail 

 an_expense on the State greater than the value of the information 

 gained. 



To the first objection, though not convinced of its truth, and in order 

 to secure the statistics in regard to agriculture, the representatives of 

 the agricultural counties yielded by striking out of the bill the clause: 

 " The number of acres of mineral land, and the kind of minerals known 



