STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 15 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 



READ AND ADOPTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, 

 HELD AT SACRAMENTO, JANUARY 20tH, 1880. 



In presenting their Annual Report, the Board take occasion to con- 

 gratulate the members upon the improved condition of the Society, 

 both in respect to its finances and in regard to its relations with the 

 general industries of the State. The Board adopted as its maxim or 

 rule of action from the beginning, the strictest economy in the 

 expenditures of the Society consistent with a liberal encouragement 

 to the industries which it is the province of the Society to foster. The 

 Board also determined that all the material industries of the State 

 should share equitably in the distribution of its bounties, and that 

 each should receive the fostering care and encouragement of the 

 Society that its circumstances and i)romise of benefit to the State 

 should demand. In their endeavor to carry out these rules the Board 

 have met with some difficulties, arising from precedents, which it has 

 been found very hard to overcome at once. These difficulties can 

 only be surmounted by patient endeavor of the Board and its officers, 

 and a determined support from the members of the Society and the 

 representatives of the material industries of the State generally. 



To what extent they have been successful in the economy of 

 expenditures may be judged from the following summary of the 

 financial history of the year : The receipts from all sources have 

 been 643,315 12 ; the total expenditures of the year have been 

 $43,313 18, leaving a balance on hand of $1 94. We have paid, of 

 indebtedness outstanding at the close of last year's transactions, 

 $8,870 08. The present audited indebtedness of the Society is 

 $7,543 39, but of this sum $295 was of last year's debt, showing a 

 reduction of the indebtedness for the year of $1,318 69. 



The Board recognized fully the importance of a radical revision of 

 the premium list, to put it abreast with the improvements in agricul- 

 ture, manufactures, and mechanic arts of the day, but circumstances 

 at the beginning of their administration delayed such revision until 

 it was too late to make and publish such changes as were clearly 

 demanded. The few changes that were made in the list of premiums 

 and in the speed programme, were accepted by the patrons of the 

 Society in the kindest of feeling, and resulted in adding materially 

 to the value of the exhibition, and the trials of speed on the course. 

 At the instance of the Board, the Secretary has already commenced 

 correspondence with other State Societies, and with representative 

 men of the various agricultural, horticultural, mechanical, manufac- 

 turing, and commercial industries of the State, with a view to a com- 

 plete adaptation of the list, for tlie coming year, to all these industries. 

 With such changes we are satisfied a greatly increased interest will be 



