676 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of this association is due. In this department has been gathered from 

 week to week, the consensus of opinions held by the local clubs upon 

 those principles and measures of which it was essential to know, thereby 

 enabling the work to be conducted, under the editorial management of 

 ex-President A. C. Bird, that I desire to call your special attention. For 

 his earnest, continuous and most helpful efforts, here and elsewhere, for 

 the promotion of the best interests of the work, our deep gratitude is due. 



A careful review of the work of the past year, with its rich results 

 already ours, gives inspiration for the future and for future efforts. 

 You are now to take under advisement the various interests of the asso- 

 ciation and are to determine what shall be the work and by what means 

 and methods it shall be prosecuted during the coming year. 



The association question submitted by the committee for the considera- 

 tion of the clubs at the October meeting very properly sought to obtain 

 opportune expression from each club as to the work which it deemed 

 most essential and profitable for the association to take up or to con- 

 tinue for the next twelve months. So far as the local clubs have given 

 expression to their views, there appears to be a very great unanimity 

 of opinion as to what the work should be, and that the organization of 

 new clubs, with the increasing efficiency of those already formed, should 

 most properly claim first attention. If this shall be your conclusion, 

 the number of clubs may be nearly doubled within the next year and 

 the 1,000 mark reached ere the recurrence of many annual meetings. 

 There should be one club at least in each township, while some town- 

 ships can well support two clubs. This will call for earnest work. It 

 also means to every laborer in the cause a rich reward for good work 

 accomplished. The 300 Farmers' Clubs already in the work with a mem- 

 bership of 20,000 of the progressive men and women of the state, are 

 bringing into those 300 communities and into those thousands of homes 

 benefits and blessings not easily computed. The grounds which the 

 Farmers' Clubs are working is a field distinctively their own, and with 

 methods peculiarly theirs, while the glorious results of their work reach 

 far and wide. 



It will not be forgotten in your deliberations that ere our next annual 

 meeting shall occur the Representatives and Senators which compose the 

 legislature of 1899 will have been elected and it will doubtless be 

 deemed both wise and essential to reaffirm the resolutions bearing upon 

 this subject which were adopted by this association two years since. 

 These resolutions may be epitomized as requiring of every candidate 

 for public office and especially for a legislative office, a pledge that in 

 the event of their election they will faithfully work for the spirit of 

 the reforms which this association advocated. At this time should pre- 

 liminary work be done and the necessary steps be taken looking to effec- 

 tive work with the legislature of 1899. Let nothing be left undone from 

 now on which may he essential to the securing from the next legislature 

 that considerate and well-advised action upon which the principles and 

 measures which this association advocates which shall result in their 

 incorporation into the laws of the State. Through wise, earnest and per- 

 sistent effort only on the pail of tie- association will this be accomplished, 

 but the object sought demands and justilies besl efforts. 



Among the importanl duties devolving upon this convention is that 



