28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sect. G. The governor shrJl draw his warrant on the treasurer, 

 from time to thne, for such sums of money as may be necessary to 

 defray the salaries and expenses provided fcr by this act, an account 

 thereof having been first rendered by the secretary of the board, and 

 audited by the executive council ; and a sum not exceeding one thou- 

 sand five hundred dollars annually is hereby appropriated to meet such 

 expenses. 



Sect. 7. The present executive committee of the state agricultural 

 society, shall constitute the Board of Agriculture for the current year. 



Sect. S. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent v/ith this act are 



hereby repealed. 



[Approved April 1, 18.36.] 



The presGut laws are uaqiiestionably a decided advance upon 

 any pi-evluus enactments, and it is confidently believed thai; future 

 Legij-lafcurcp, ci.lightensd l»y the experience o" others, and espe- 

 cially that Oi' our maternal State, imbued with the pro^ii'ressive 

 spirit of this nineteenth century, and prompted by the demands 

 of their constituents, may net only remedy their defects, but 

 also pass such other enactments as the prosperity of tliis great 

 interest may from time to time require. 



From this brief sketch, it is ap^jarent, that even after more 

 than a quarter of a century of eirorc on the part of tlie most 

 intelligent farmers of the State, tlie Legislature has scarcely ' 

 granted their prayer, modest as it has been. Progress has 

 been made, but very slowly. Why has it been tlins tardy ? 

 Several causes may be named, one of which is a lack of unanim- 

 ity as to the precise means niost expedient to com[)ass the 

 desired end. It is perfectly natural tJiat this sliould be the 

 case, as the field of action is so broad, the interest so vasL, and 

 the meaijs so varied, that it is not strange if opinions vary also 

 as to their relative merits. Anotlicr, is the indiCeronce of the 

 mass of iiuintelligent farmers to any improvements, content, if 

 Bot determined, to tread only in the beaten track of their ances- 

 tors. A third, and the worst is, that among the legislators them- 

 selves, there have usually been a few larmers (or nominally such) 

 who seem so thorough.ly imbued witli tlie conviction that every 

 dollar expended is absolutely lost, and that every penny saved 

 is necessarily so much clear gain, that it is utterly incomprehen- 

 sible how they could ever be induced to scatter seed or spread 

 manure, instead o^ saving both, and whose views of the ultimato 



