ANNOUNCEMENT. FARMERS' INSTITUTE MATTER, WHY OMITTED; COUNTY SOCIETY WANTED TO EXCHANGE. LOCAL SOCIETIES. § 2310 Howell's Statutes provides that on or before December 20th of each year the officers of county, town and district agricultural societies shall transmit to the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society an annual report. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. § 2290 Howells Statutes makes it the duty of the State Agricultural Society to transmit its annual report to the Secretary of State during the month of January. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. Section 1, Law 173, 1883, (see p. 42 of this volume) requires that the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture shall report to the legi-lature at every regular session thereof, and to the Governor on the first Wednesday of January of each year when the legislature is not in session; which report shall embrace * proceedings of the State Agricultural Society, and of the County and District Agricultural Societies to be approved by the Board, and that 8,000 copies of this report shall be printed and bound annually, prior to the first day of June. * * * * STATE REPORTS. Under these laws it has been customary to present a financial report of the State Board of Agriculture to the Governor or legislature by the first Wednesday of January, but to defer the printing of the full volume embracing Society and Institute matter till well along in the following summer. Thus it comes about that at the Farmers' Institutes in February when asked for our latest reports, we can only offer one carrying a date that is two years old, and the effect is about as good as to offer a last week's daily paper. INTENT OF LAW. be very That this is not the desire of the framers of our State laws may clearly seen from the following general provisions covering all such cases. PUBLISHED BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF NOVEMBER. § 413 Howell's Statutes: The Board of each State institution shall by the first day of November preceding the regular sessions of the Legislature, present to the Governor a report for the two fiscal years closing on the 30th day of the preceding September, which report shall be furnished the State printer for publication by the first day of November of the year when made. * * * The Boards of each State Institution which is essentially educational in character, shall also annually, before the first day of November, make out and present to the Superintendent of Public Instruction a report, etc. GENERAL LAW. § 354 Howell's Statutes: It shall be the duty of the several officers and boards of officers of this State and also of the several public institutions thereof to * * * * cause their respective reports to be placed in the hands of the printer of the laws of this State for publication as soon as practicable after the close of the fiscal year. (The fiscal year closes by law September 30.) HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. § 2321 Howell's Statutes requires that local Horticultural societies shall report during the month of November in each year to the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society; such reports to be used as correspondence in compiling the report of the State Horticultural Society. § 2320 Howell's Statutes makes it the duty of the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society to report to the Secretary of State in December of each year. FUTURE PLANS. It is my earnest desire to conform perfectly with the manifest purpose and spirit of the above laws and to place the entire material for the annual volume for 1886 and for each succeeding issue in the hands of the State printer for publication, "as soon as practicable after the close of the fiscal year.' LOCAL SOCIETIES; WHEN TO REPORT AND WHAT TO REPORT. Whether it will be possible to make this as early as the date specified in section 413, depends entirely upon the degree of coöperation extended by all concerned, and I take this opportunity particularly to request the officers of district and local Agricultural societies to forward their reports to the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, Mr. J. C. Sterling, Monroe, Mich., at the earliest possible date after the holding of the annual fair. Please give in addition to a concise summary statement of receipts and expenditures such particulars as will be of more than local interest. Put in only such matter as you are aching to know about regarding other societies and other places, because that is just the kind of information that other people are anxious to have of your society and your neighborhood. PREMIUM LISTS. Premium lists and awards it would neither be possible nor desirable to print in full for each of the forty-four local societies. No one would be pleased with the taxes necessary to pay for such a waste of public printing, nor would farmers be willing to pay postage or freight on a report big enough to contain so much useless matter. INSTITUTES. This arrangement will throw the proceedings of each series of Farmers' Institutes into the report for the year in which they are held. Thus the Institutes of February, 1886 will be printed in the 1886 report, and I hope be ready for distribution in December of the same year. BACK VOLUMES OF REPORT. There is still on hand a supply of Reports for the following years: 1871, 1872, 1873-4, 1875, 1879, 1880, 1883 and 1884, the postage on which is 15, 12, 21, 18, 17, 17, 16 and 16 cents respectively. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, MICH., } June 1, 1886. YEARS WANTED. The supply of Reports from 1861 to 1870, both inclusive, 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1881-2 is exhausted. I shall be pleased to exchange with any one having copies of any of these years, or should esteem it a favor if any one knowing of the existence of extra copies of any of these years, would inform me. Doubtless many copies are stowed away here and there in the store rooms of county offices or on the shelves of those who would willingly spare them. These I wish to secure in order to redistribute them among those who will read them. Please address all communications to HENRY G. REYNOLDS, Secretary State Board of Agriculture. |