CHAPTER X 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 



If the rural debating society is a thing of the past, 

 it is not thus with the agricultural fair, which also 

 dates back to the early days of Michigan agriculture. 

 The promotion of fairs was an object of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society organized under an act 

 of the State legislature of 1849, "for the purpose 

 of promoting the improvement of agriculture and its 

 kindred arts.'' ^ The society's constitution made pro- 

 vision for a president, for a vice-president in each 

 organized county and for a corresponding secretary in 

 each such county to be affiliated with the State society 

 as well as the local county agricultural society. The 

 State society was to hold an annual fair, and its 

 executive committee was to provide premiums "on 

 such articles, productions and improvements as they 

 may deem best calculated to promote the agricultural 

 and household manufacturing interests of the state, 

 having special reference to the most economical or 

 popular mode of competition in raising the crops 

 or stock or in the fabrication of the articles offered." 

 The county agricultural societies were deemed "auxil- 

 iaries" of the State society. The right to establish 



>"Rept. Mich. Bd. Agr.," 1859. 



332 



