NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION. 3Q9 



in each of the colleges now wholly or in part sustained by the 

 previous land-grant of Congress, and also that the War Depart- 

 ment maybe directed at the earliest practicable moment, to assign 

 an officer of the army to each of said colleges, in every respect 

 competent to give mathematical and other military instruction." 



As regards the protection of timber lands, a committee of five 

 were appointed to report to the Commissioner of Agriculture on 

 the best method of preserving the timber of the country, especially 

 the timber of the Rocky Mountains and the central prairie regions 

 of the republic. 



The convention recommended the establishment of State Boards 

 of Agriculture in the States of the Union in which such Boards do 

 not exist. It is proper to mention the fact, that, as a result of this 

 recommendation a Board of Agriculture has been established in at 

 least one State, as shown by the preamble of the act organizing 

 such a Board in the State of New Jersey. It reads thus : 



" Whereas, The National Convention at the last meeting in 

 Washington, in taking action for the promotion of agricultural 

 interests, resolved that the several States in which boards of agri- 

 culture do not now exist, be requested' to organize such boards by 

 legislative action;" &c. : 



" Therefore, be it enacted ****** That 

 the Board of Managers and Superintendent of the State Geologi- 

 cal Survey, the President and two of the Professors of the'l*Late 

 Agricultural College, chosen by the College faculty ; three mem- 

 bers of the Board of Visitors of the Agricultural College, chosen 

 by their Board ; the President or other representative sent by 

 each of the State and County Agricultural Societies that may be 

 in correspondence with this Board, shall constitute the State 

 Board of Agriculture." 



The proposition of a general and systematic plan of meteoro- 

 logical observations and crop reports, was heartily sanctioned. 



The distribution of valuable seeds and plants by the Department 

 of Agriculture, was encouraged, and a special request was made 

 in behalf oi New England, that it distribute in these States samples 

 of the Treadwell and Diehl winter wheats, grown in Michigan, and 

 of the best spring wheats grown in Nebraska. Another subject 

 considered by the convention, to which allusion has not before 

 been made, was the destruction to crops by noxious insects. The 

 importance of this topic is evident when we remember that our 

 country annually loses from this cause more than three hundred 



