90 The State and the Farmer 



banking, railroads, and others, are represented 

 by departments or bureaus having executive 

 authority. 



State departments of agriculture. 



Every state in the Union, as well as the 

 provinces of Canada, has some kind of a state- 

 recognized organization, voluntary or other- 

 wise, devoted to agriculture. Some of these 

 organizations are societies ; others are boards ; 

 apparently less than half of the organizations 

 are really a department of the state govern- 

 ment, and with perhaps a half dozen excep- 

 tions, these departments do not exercise 

 extended governmental functions. For the 

 most part, these state organizations are con- 

 cerned chiefly with the exploitation of the 

 agricultural resources of the commonwealth 

 or with the holding of conventions and con- 

 ducting of fairs. Sometimes, as in Michigan, 

 Maryland and Colorado, the board of agricul- 

 ture acts as a board of trustees for the agri- 

 cultural college. In a number of the states, 

 the composition of these boards is founded 



