THE 



QUAETER CENTENNIAL REPORT 



OP THE 



SECRETARY 



OF Tira 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of 



Massachusetts : — 



The State Board of Agriculture was organized twenty-five 

 years ago. It was designed to systematize and to supervise 

 the distribution of the bounties offered by the Commonwealth 

 through the county agricultural societies, — a method of en- 

 couragement originated as early as 1818, in furtherance of a 

 clause of the Constitution, or organic law of the State, chap. 

 V. sect. 2, which makes it " the duty of legislatures and magis- 

 trates to encourage private societies and public institutions 

 by rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, 

 arts, sciences, commerce, trades, and manufactures, and a 

 natural history of the country." 



The bounties, at first very limited in amount, on account 

 of the small number of societies then in existence, had grad- 

 ually increased by the multiplication of such societies, till 

 they amounted, in 1852, to more than nine thousand dollars 

 a year. Certain returns were required to be made as a con- 

 dition of receiving the bounty ; but they were not published 

 or made known to the public till the year 1845, when a small 

 pamphlet was issued, under the direction of the Secretary of 

 the Commonwealth, containing the more important portion 

 of the transactions of the societies, little condensed and in a 



