SECRETARY'S REPORT. 205 



to have something prepared for action, or actually accomplished, 

 during the interim. At the last session, an attempt was made in 

 this direction, and the reports in the preceding pages are the result ; 

 and this plan may very probably be continued. Might it not also 

 be of service to invite the presentation of views or suggestions as 

 topics for discussion when the Board meets, both from members, 

 officers of county societies, and from other individuals, to be for- 

 warded to the Secretary early enough prior to each session to enable 

 him to lay the same before the members by means of a circular, a 

 month or more before the session, that they may have the benefit of 

 careful previous consideration of the same, and be prepared to submit 

 matured opinions upon their merits, and to act with a better under- 

 standing of the subjects proposed. 



Up to the present time, such an effort has been scarcely practicable, 

 as the Secretary has had no means of knowing in advance who were 

 to be members at the coming session; but when the Board next 

 assembles, it will be in this, as well as in some other respects, under 

 more favorable auspices than at any previous meeting. Hitherto the 

 members have been elected every year, and in consequence of this, 

 each year has brought together mostly new members, who have not 

 had the benefit of previous acquaintance with, and consideration of, 

 the plans proposed for the furtherance of the end which all desire to 

 see accomplished, to wit : the promotion and elevation of practical 

 agriculture throughout the State. At the last session of the Legis- 

 lature, the recommendation of the Board on" this point was favorably 

 received and acted upon, and it is now provided that a third only of 

 the members constituting the Board be newly elected each year, and 

 a greater degree of efficiency is confidently anticipated from the . 

 change. The amount of benefit which shall result from their delib- 

 erations must of course depend on the character of the Board itself; 

 and as its members are elected by the agricultural societies, the 

 responsibility actually rests upon them, and too great care cannot be 

 taken to secure the best talents at their command; and for this purpose, 

 something more than a knowledge of practical, or even of scientific 

 agriculture, is needful. 



If the aim of the Board was to grow the best crops, or to feed and 

 treat cattle judiciously, or to do any of the thousan'd and one other 

 things required upon the farm, in the best possible manner, this 



