350 RURAL ^^EW YORE 



the other agricultural societies iu the State. In re- 

 cent years its reports have heen published as bulletins 

 of the Department of Agriculture. 



The effort to represent agriculture in a State board 

 or society appears first to have taken form in the 

 " Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and 

 Manufactures," founded in 1791 and chartered by the 

 legislature in 1793. The Society was to collect in- 

 formation on agriculture from the counties for pub- 

 lication. The charter having expired in 1804, the 

 legislature chartered " The Society for the Promotion 

 of Useful Arts in the State of New York." In 

 1818, Governor De Witt Clinton advised the organiza- 

 tion of a board to represent agriculture and closely 

 allied interests and to furtlier them by means of edu- 

 cation. In 1820 the Board of Agriculture was 

 founded. It was to work with the county societies, 

 to distribute seeds, award premiums and otherwise 

 " to promote the agricultural and manufacturing in- 

 terests of this State." It expired by limitation in 

 1825, and in 1832 the State Agricultural Society 

 was founded. The idea of county exhibitions and 

 reports was continued through all these changes. 

 This society has had an honorable and influential 

 career, and many educational and similar movements 

 have come out of it. In later years it has found a 

 less important place to occupy because, for one thing, 

 the State Department of Agriculture (now the De- 

 partment of Farms and Markets) assumed the rela- 

 tions with the counties as expressed in the fairs, and 

 the State Fair is no longer part of its work. 



