382 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The first annual report of the secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture, the first report of Secretary Flint, bore date of 

 Jan. 23, 1854. From the first, these volumes, published 

 annually, have been known under the title " Agriculture of 

 Massachusetts . " 



This report was published as a legislative document for 

 some years, the first legislation on the subject found being 

 chapter 33 of the Resolves of 1856, which authorized the 

 clerk of the Senate to number it 4 in the series of Senate 

 documents. Chapter 46 of the Acts of 1858 included this 

 report in the " public " series of docmnents. The report was 

 designated as Public Document, No. 4, and has so continued 

 to the present time. 



Chapter 221 of the Acts of 1860 provided that the record 

 of the doings of the Commissioners on Contagious Diseases 

 among Cattle, or an abstract of the same, should " be printed 

 in the annual volume of Transactions of the State Board of 

 Agriculture." This legislation was continued by chapter 

 138 of the Acts of 1862, and this has been the policy sub- 

 stantially to the present day. 



Chapter 33 of the Resolves of 1856 authorized the clerk 

 of the Senate to cause to be printed, annually, before the 

 meeting of the Legislature, or as soon thereafter as possible, 

 10,000 copies of this report, of which 2,000 copies were to 

 be reserved for the use of the Legislature, and the residue 

 placed at the disposal of the secretary of the Board. 



Secretary Flint, in his first annual report (1853), said : — 



Special care has been taken, to effect a general and judicious 

 distribution of the volume of Agricultural Transactions, an- 

 nually published by the State. Copies have been sent directly 

 to the small and remote towns, many of which had no repre- 

 sentative and no express, to men who read it with interest, and 

 who desire to improve by the practice and experience of others. 

 It has thus been put into the hands of very many who could 

 not, otherwise, have obtained it without great difficulty. 



These annual volumes were divided into two distinct 

 parts, Part I. being the report of the secretary of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, and Part II. the abstract of the returns 



