REPORT 



OF THE 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE FOR 1870. 



To the Members of the State Agricultural Society: 



Gentlemen: In presenting to you our annual report at this time we 

 feel no little pride and satisfaction in being able to say that the State 

 Agricultural Society, the management of which has been entrusted to 

 our care, was never in a more prosperous condition, financially and 

 otherwise, than at present. 



A comprehensive statement of the transactions of the Board for the 

 past year, the present position and wants of the society, together with 

 some recommendations for changes, with a view to rendering the society 

 more efficient in assisting in the development of the State's numerous 

 agricultural and other resources will be found at the close of this report. 



In X'eviewing the progress and results of the industries of the State 

 for the past year the Board find abundant reason for indulging in most 

 sincere thankfulness to Providence for the general prosperity that has 

 been vouchsafed to our entire people. In looking over the industrial 

 prospects of the future we also find abundant reason for entertaining 

 most sanguine hopes for an uninterrupted continuance of a healthy and 

 substantial progress in all the arts, sciences, and industries that con- 

 tribute to the general prosperity and happiness of a people. 



The long continued dry weather during the past few months was 

 beginning to cause serious apprehensions among all classes of the com- 

 munity that we were about to experience a repetition of the disastrous 

 consequences of a dry season like that of eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 three and eighteen hundred and sixty-four. The late rains, however, 

 and the general change of the weather gives promise that the ensuing 

 3^ear will be one of the most prosperous that the State has ever expe- 

 rienced. 



In pursuance of a better and more rational system of agriculture 

 which our grain farmers have been adopting for the last few years, an 



