16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and paid in premiums during the preceding year was a special 

 enactment by chapter 258 of the Acts of 1870, passed while sub- 

 stantially all the other provisions of the law were and had been in 

 force at least for some years ; and this clearl}^ indicates the pur- 

 pose of the Legislature that the right to bounty shall depend ab- 

 solutely upon the award and payment of premiums during the 

 preceding year; and, as has already appeared, the right of repre- 

 sentation in the Board depends upon the right to bounty. The 

 requirements of section 7, to apply the bounty to the general en- 

 couragement or improvement of agriculture or manufactures if it 

 is not offered in premiums, is undoubtedly binding upon every 

 society ; but while compliance with it fulfils the obligation of that 

 section, it does not necessarily entitle a society to representation 

 in the Board, as the bounty is not received, and therefore cannot 

 be expended, until October, while the right of the society to rep- 

 resentation in that year depends upon its having offered and paid 

 in premiums during the preceding year an amount equivalent to 

 the bounty. In other words, under section 7 a society may apply 

 a bounty either in premiums or to the general encouragement or 

 improvement of agriculture or manufactures ; but the latter ap- 

 plication of it would not entitle the society to representation in 

 the Board during the succeeding year, while the former applica- 

 tion of it would if the other requirements were fulfilled. 



The question is raised also whether the requirement of section 1 

 of chapter 114, of an invested capital of $1,000, is satisfied if 

 a society has ever had and invested a capital equivalent to that 

 amount. Section 1 provides that two classes of societies shall be 

 entitled to bounty while complying with the other requirements, 

 namely, societies which were entitled to bounty before May, 1866, 

 of which $1,000 capital was then as now a condition, and other 

 societies whose grounds are not within twelve miles of any others, 

 which have raised and invested the same capital. As by section 

 1 the bounty is to a certain extent measured by the capital, and 

 as the reasons for requiring a capital seem to apply alike to all 

 societies, it appears to me that this requirement applies to all. I 

 think the reason of this provision, if not the language, can be 

 satisfied only by an actually existing investment of capital of that 

 amount at the time when the question of the right of the society 

 to representation arises, and that a previous investment of such 

 capital, which has been expended or lost, does not fulfil this re- 

 quirement, the purpose of which seems clearly to be to require an 

 existing and invested capital of at least $1,000 as a sort of guar- 

 antee that the society is doing or is prepared to do some actual 

 work in the cause of agriculture. 



