304 SXATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



quested that a section be made for junior and senior in the yearling 

 class. 



Mr. Stevens also stated that the association had arranged for a sale 

 to take place on the fair grounds in May and also desired to hold a sale 

 on the fair grounds during the fair, providing the Society would fur- 

 nish suitable accommodations for the same. 



Mr. Stevens requests were received and that relating to the premium 

 list was referred to the Premium Committee and that relating to sales 

 to the Business Committee. 



President liowland presented his address as follows: 



To the Executive Committee, Michigan State Agricultural Society: 



Gentlemen — It has been customary for the presiding officers of this 

 Society to bring to the attention of the Executive Committee such mat- 

 ters as seemed, in their judgment, to demand adjustment. Following 

 the precedent of my predecessors I will endeavor to point out some of 

 the undesirable conditions that confront us at the present time and 

 recommend, or at least suggest, such action as will, in vij judgment, 

 either remedy or alleviate the unfavorable conditions I shall refer to. 



The JMichigan State Agricultural Society is supposed to be a ward of 

 the State, operating along agricultural and mechanical educational lines. 

 Its methods are by object lessons, requiring lands, offices, buildings, 

 railways and other facilities for accommodating quantities of goods and 

 large assemblages of people. 



AVe find the condition of this Society, after a series of exhibitions 

 reaching back over a period of fifty years, such as to compel us to either 

 rent, borrow or beg the accommodation we are in need of, and are forced 

 to secure, before we can ai)propriately proceed with a single arrange- 

 ment for a future exhibition and this is the third time in a period of 

 three years that this condition has been in evidence. During the short 

 time referred to there has been expended by the Society nearly |10,000, 

 entirely of a temporary nature. 



I assume, gentlemen, tli s condition to be undesirable because it is an 

 impediment to desirable conditions. It confronts us when we petition 

 state aid; it is in evidence when we negotiate with transportation com- 

 panies; it deprives us of comfortable accommodations, without which 

 we cannot attract the patronge of those seeking amusement, because 

 comfort and amusement are close companions. 



Other reasons exist, gentlemen, but I deem those already noted of 

 sufficient importance to call for 3'our immediate consideration of such 

 measures as are likely to result in the acquiring of accommodations of a 

 permanent nature. And next, after your attention has been given to 

 the general arrangements that past experience has proved to be neces- 

 sary and practical, I call your attention to the matter of state aid. In 

 looking over the past history of this Society i conclude that for at least 

 forty years of the immediate past the conditions have neither been bene- 

 ficial to this Society or a credit to the State. 



In proof of this assertion I offer some dates and figures obtained from 

 the Secretary and which I iDresume to be entirely correct. These figures 

 relate to appropriations by the State in the year 1849, from which year 

 the charter is dated. Four hundred dollars per year was granted for 

 five years. Beginning in 1851, two years later, finding the struggle too 



