i 



ANNUAL MEETING. 



Office of the Secretary, | 



Columbia, Missouri, December 16, 1902. 4 



The Board of Agriculture met in the office of the Secretary. Meet- 

 ing called to order by the President, W. R. Wilkinson. The Secretary 

 called the roll and the following answered present : 



W. T. Carrington, H. J. Waters, Chas. F. Afflick, J. W. Hill, Alex- 

 Maitland, W. L. Bryant, H. F. Hand, N H. Gentry, W. C. Howell, J. 

 A. Potts and W. R. Wilkinson. 



Upon motion of H. J. Waters, the reading of the minutes of the last 

 annual meeting was dispensed with and the minutes as printed in the 

 34th Annual Report were adopted. 



The Secretary read the following report, which was accepted and 

 ordered printed in Annual Report. 



REPORT OF SECRETARY. 



Members Board of /\griculture : 



The first Agricultural Society in this State was incorporated by the 

 Legislature, February 24, 1853. This no doubt led to the act of the Legis- 

 lature incorporating the State Board of Agriculture twelve years later. 

 The Board was first organized March 13, 1865, and was reorganized in 

 1891 upon a much broader and better basis. 



By the examination of the records of this office we find that some 

 of the questions that were given consideration in the first years of the 

 Board's existence are still questions of importance to the farmers of the 

 State. The subject of Agricultural education received prominence in 

 the first annual report issued in 1866, and has received the encouragement 

 of the Board up to this time. The progress has been slow it is true, but 

 much ignorance and prejudice have been overcome, and at the present 

 time Agriculture is one of the branches required in the course of study 

 for teachers in our public schools, each of the three State Normal Schools 

 has a department of Agriculture where Agriculture is taught to the 



