MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 331 



On motion the executive committee of 1902 adjourned sine die. 



The executive committee and officers elect were called to order by 

 President Howland, 



Roll called and the following members responded : Pres. E. Howland, 

 Treas. C. W. Young, Sec'y I. H. Butterfield, members of executive com- 

 mittee, Messrs. Fifield, Boyden, Barnes, Dewey, Ball, Hinds, Dean, Rice, 

 Hoffman, Custard. Maynard, Waldron, German, McKay, Collier, Hardy, 

 Jacobs, Marshall, Skeels. 



President Howland read his address as follows: 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HOWLAND. 



Members of the State Agricultural Society: 



It is very embarrassing to me, gentlemen, to be called on to take the 

 position so lately filled by so worthy and talented a gentleman as our 

 retiring president. 



There is also another cause of embarrassment, gentlemen, in taking the 

 chairmanship of your committee, while I know it to be both customary 

 and appropriate for your president to point out defects and recommend 

 remedies in the business methods of the organization, it is well known 

 by a majority of your members who are veterans in the society's service, 

 that I have not had the experience in the management of the society's 

 affairs that would entitle advice from me to your highest consideration ; 

 therefore, I will aim to make only such propositions as carry weight by 

 their own self-evident nature. 



I deem it, gentlemen, to be our first duty to take action in honor of 

 the memory of our lately deceased brother, the Hon. Wm. Ball, for whose 

 service the society owes its deepest gratitude, and the memory of whose 

 companionship must be very dear to the older members of this committee. 



The business of the past being now adjusted, the future is before us 

 and knowing as all concerned do that the contract for accommodations 

 for holding the fair has expired it would seem to me that arrangements 

 for accommodations for a fair in 1903 should be the first business ques- 

 tion considered and while I may be censured for being too much inter- 

 ested to make an unselfish recommendation on the question, I feel con- 

 strained to say that I do not think a removal from Pontiac at least for 

 the coming year should be a debatable question, provided reasonable 

 terms can be obtained of those having in charge the grounds and build- 

 ings lately used by the society. 



I base my position on this question on the following reasons : It is 

 now by all odds the best equipped grounds in the state. It stands in 

 evidence that the location is a favorable one for holding a successful fair. 

 The society has three or four thousand dollars invested upon the 

 grounds and the citizens of Pontiac deplore the weather conditions which 

 robbed them of their cherished hopes of seeing the State Fair of 1902 an 

 unprecedented success. Other affirmative reasons could be cited which 

 I will not now take the time to give. 



