456 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Held its Annual Meeting in Albany on the 19th and 20th of January. The 

 President, Mr. Vail, stated the permanent fund of the Society to be $8,000. Mr. 

 -J. M'D. M'Intyre, the Treasurer, read his Annual Report: 



Balance from last Report and receipts from various sources during the year ..$6,457 19 



Disbursements during tlie year — Premiums paid $2,266 73 



Incidental expenses 514 78 



Library 61 22 



Salaries 947 27 



P^xpenses, 1846 312 88 



Other expenses 547 75 



Invested 1st October last 1,000 00 



5,650 63 



Balance on hand 806 56 



$6,457 19 



Mr. Geddes, of Onondaga, gave notice that at the next Annual Meeting of the 

 Society he would move an amendment to the Constitution so as to exclude the 

 ex-Presidents of the Society froin the Executive Committee, they having been 

 added to the Board by an amendment adopted last year. We presume there 

 must be some rule which requires a year's notice to be given in such cases, for 

 otherwise the propriety of the measure suggested would appear to be but too 

 self-evident. After all, however, by whom is it likely to be finally decided ? 



Under this amendment, making all previous Presidents (a new one every year) 

 acting members of the Executive Committee, how many years will it he before 

 the elective portion of the Committee will be overlaid, and the whole finances, 

 management and influence of this State Institution be in the hands of its life offi- 

 cers ? Instead of perpetual power, there should in such cases rather be perpetual 

 rotations, in order to preserve public confidence and prevent suspicion and com- 

 plaint — all unworthy and ill-founded even as we may admit these might be: in 

 the business and affairs of this world, Ave must take the world as we find it— not 

 as it ought to be. Besides, the body of water that is ever stationary is not apt to 

 be so lively and healthful ; motion is not only the sign but the source of vitality. 

 Where there is no change of rulers, fixed ideas, long-cherished opinions and 

 plans take the place of wholesome agitation, inquiry and progress. Even the 

 annually elected executive officers should rotate, a certain number only being 

 reeligible, enough, along with the Secretary and Treasurer, to transmit to suc- 

 cessive Boards the history and spirit of past proceedings, so as to guard against 

 inconsistency and to secure the execution, in good Aiith, of measures already 

 projected and proclaimed. And now that we are on this subject we may ven- 

 ture farther to express, as far as we may presume to have an impression, that 

 no President or officer of any Agricultural Society, especially those exercising 

 any control over the appointment of Judges, should be a competitor for its prizes 

 that year. True, it may be supposed that those who are such conspicuous pro- 

 moters of improvements in Agriculture as to bethought of for its highest offices, 

 must be remarkable for their excellence in many of its departments. But that 

 by no means follows, nor is it essential, as to the Presidency. Men may be 

 zealous friends and most efficient stimulators and promoters of practical melio- 

 rations in Agriculture, and exemplarv Presidents of such Societies, and yet in 



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