STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 601 



The payment of a portion of our prizes in Transactions of the 

 State Society and American Institute, and Agricultural, Horticul- 

 tural and Mechanical publications has been found to work well 

 and gives general satisfaction. There has been, it is true, fault 

 found occasionally by persons whose only object in joining the 

 society is to make mone}*, and who take no interest whatever in 

 its prosperity. The opinion of such persons is of little conse- 

 quence. It is believed that the intelligent portion of the com- 

 munity appreciate the propriety of our course in this respect. 

 In the payment of our prizes we have distributed the following : 



Fifteen copies of the Country Gentleman; eighteen do. Rural 

 New-Yorker; sixteen do. Horticulturist; two do. American Agri- 

 culturist; six do. Cultivator; jfive do. Genesee Farmer; one do. 

 Plow, Loom and Anvil; one do. New England Farmer, (weekly) — 

 sixty-four copies of periodicals for the year 1857. Twenty-five 

 volumes Transactions. 



The tlianks of the society were voted to the Hon. Jefferson 

 Davis, Secretary of War, and to Quartermaster General Jessup, 

 for the use of the U. S. Earracks and grounds. 



The annual meeting of the Executive Committee was held at 

 the court house on the ISth December, at which several applica- 

 tions for premiums on field crops were presented, which were 

 referred to a committee who reported that the statements were 

 in every case insufficient to authorize them to award premiums 

 thereon; this they regretted, as some of the crops were without 

 doubt, deserving of premiums. 



The terms on which the society offers its prizes on crops are, 

 that the applicants shall furnish an accurate statement showing 

 the character of the soil, its condition at the commencement of 

 cultivation for the crop. Tlie previous crop and cultivation and 

 quantity of manure used thereon, and the kind and quality of 

 manure and seed used the present season, the time and manner 

 of putting in — cultivating and harvesting the crop — the amount 

 of tlie crop, determined by actual weight or measurement and 

 the expense of cnltivation. To furnish these particulars correctly 

 the fai'mer should keep an exact account with every crop as it 

 progresses. — The object of the society is to induce a system of 

 improved cultivation, and the statements required detailing the 



