30 LAWS RELATING TO AGRICULTURE. 



SEC. 3696. [Secretary of state authorized to furnish stationery 

 to board of agriculture.] The secretary of state is authorized to furn- 

 ish the board with such stationery as may be requisite to the proper dis- 

 charge of its duties, together with such blank books as may be necessary 

 to keep the records of the transactions of the board. 



COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



SEC. 3697. [Organization of district or county agricultural soci- 

 eties.] When thirty or more persons, residents of any county, or dis- 

 trict embracing two or more counties, organize themselves into a society 

 for the improvement of agriculture within such county or district, and 

 adopt constitutions and by-laws, agreeable to the rules and regulations 

 to be furnished by the state board of agriculture, and appoint the usual 

 and proper officers, and the society pays to its treasurer, by voluntary 

 subscription, or by fees imposed upon its members, any sum of money in 

 each year not less than fifty dollars, and the president of the society cer- 

 tifies to the respective county auditors the amount thus paid, attested by 

 the oath of the treasurer before a magistrate, the county auditors em- 

 braced within the district in which such society is organized, shall draw 

 an order on the treasurer of the respective counties in favor of the presi- 

 dent and treasurer of the society, for a sum equal to the amount thus raised, 

 not exceeding two cents to each inhabitant of the county upon the basis 

 of the last previous national census, but not exceeding in any county the 

 sum of eight hundred dollars ; and the treasurer of said [the] county 

 shall pay the same. Provided, that where in any county containing a city 

 of the second grade of the first class, the -site for holding county fairs is 

 situated so far from the geographical center of said county, that, in the 

 opinion of the commissioners of said county, the agricultural interests 

 of said county will best be promoted by the establishment of another and 

 additional society and site whereon to hold fairs ; upon the organization 

 of such additional society in the manner provided herein, said additional 

 society shall be entitled to receive out of the county treasury in any sum 

 not to exceed the amount which said commissioners are now authorized 

 to allow by this section and section 3702(7. 



SEC. 3698. [For what premiums may be offered by agricultural 

 societies.] The several county or district societies which may be 

 formed under the provisions of the preceding section shall, annually, "offer 

 and award premiums for the improvement of soils, tillage, crops, manures, 

 implements, stock, articles of domestic industry, and such other articles, 

 productions, and improvements, as they deem proper, and may perform 

 all such acts as they deem best calculated to promote the agricultural and 

 household manufacturing interests of the district and of "the state, and 

 shall regulate the amount of premiums, and the different grades of the 

 same, so that it shall be competent for small as well as large farmers to 

 have an opportunity to compete therefor; and in making their awards 

 special reference shall be had to the profits which accrue, or are likely 

 to accrue, from the improved mode of raising the crop, or of improving 

 the soil, or stock, or of the fabrication of the articles thus offered, so that 

 the premium shall be given for the most economical mode of improve- 

 ment ; and all persons offering to compete for premiums on improved 

 modes of tillage, or the production of any crops or other articles, shall 

 "be required, before such premium is adjudged to deliver to the awarding 

 committee a full and correct statement of the process of such mode of 



