RECEIPTS. 



.Receipts for 1868 $27,107 15 



Receipts for 1869 28,497 85 



Total receipts for two 3 r ears 



DISBURSEMENTS. 



Disbursements for 1868 $27,107 15 



Disbursements for 1869 28,326 07 



Total disbursements for two years 



Balauce on band 



$55,605 00 



$55,433 22 



$171 78 



During tbe first nine years of the society's existence, though of great 

 benefit to tbe State, in directing the development of her resources, like 

 most other public beneficiary institutions of those early da3~s, it proved 

 a financial failure, and a large debt accumulated against it. amounting, in 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to over twenty-six thousand dollars. 

 For the past six years, however, under a different system of manage- 

 ment, it has been more successful in this respect, and to-day it does not 

 owe a dollar, and has, as will be seen by the above exhibit, a small sum 

 on hand with which to begin the work of another year. 



While encumbered with indebtedness, and the creditors anxious for 

 their pay, the Board will frankly acknowledge that thej- have deemed it 

 prudent, and, indeed, have considered it a duty, to manage the affairs of 

 the society with an eye to the speedy payment of the debt, believing 

 that in this manner they could the sooner open for it a field of more ex- 

 tended and permanent usefulness. 



The pecuniary embarassment under which the Board have labored, 

 and the desire to free themselves of this embarassment, has rendered it 

 necessary for them to plan and conduct the annual fair in the past 

 in such a manner as to secure the greatest possible income with the 

 least expense. The necessity for this course, we believe, has not been 

 generally understood, and hence there may have been heretofore an 

 apparent reason for complaint that some of the industries of the State 

 were made more prominent at the fairs of the society than others. The 

 debt having been paid, and leaving the society in possession of means 

 too small without assistance to be of much service to the industrial 

 classes, it is suggested that an appropriation of at least five thousand 

 dollars a 3 r ear for the next two years is necessary to enable the Board 

 to carry out those improvements in management they desire to make. 

 This sum is small compared to what could most profitably be used by 

 Board in offering premiums for strictly agricultural products. The pres- 

 ent unhealthy condition of our agriculture, as we shall hereafter show, 

 calls for the introduction and cultivation of a greater variety of pro- 

 ducts. These changes and improvements can only be brought about by 

 offering inducements to individual enterprise and experiment. Money 

 appropriated to societies like the one we represent is only loaned to the 

 people, and if judiciously distributed, will soon be returned to the treas- 

 ury with interest. The Board are necessarily to some extent the servants 

 of those who the most liberally sustain them and furnish them means ; 



