MEMBERS OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. Ex-officio. CHARLES WARREN LIPPITT, Governor. EDWIN R. ALLEN, Lieutenant Governor. (Appointed by the Governor pursuant to Chapter 99 of the General Laws.) By the Woonsocket Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society. By the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and Agricultural Experiment Station. By the Rhode Island State Grange. TRISTAM D. BABCOCK, of Westerly SECRETARY OF THE BOARD. Term expires March, 1898. GEORGE A. STOCKWELL, of Providence. Place of meeting of the Board, -State House, Providence. Office of the Secretary, Board of Trade Building, Providence. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. William Williams was born in London, of which city his father was a freeman, being a member of one of the city guilds. He was admitted to the City of London Collegiate School, from which, however, he was not graduated, in consequence of serious ill health, arising from partial loss of sight. Mr. Williams came to Philadelphia in 1848, where his ancestors had lived as prominent merchants since the close of the Revolution. He left Philadelphia and traveled in the south and west for some time, then he returned to New York and began business on Wall street as a banker, chiefly in European exchanges. At the breaking out of the war he retired from that business, and accepted a position as chief bookkeeper in the Treasury Department at Washington, where he remained till 1873. Confinement to business having impaired his health, Mr. Williams bought a farm in Bristol, and followed, and still follows, (though in a very limited sense at present), an occupation that he considers the most honorable on earth, and feels prouder of his labor in the pursuit of agriculture than of any other employment of his life. He has always been a diligent student, caring more for science than for any other branch of learning, though believing implicitly that poetry, art, music, literature are indispensable to make one like Ulysses, "a many sided man." It is a pleasure to him to know that he has contributed in a small measure to the prosperity of the country, for he was the first to send canned peaches and tomatoes to England, stoves and hardware to Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Williams became a member of the Board of Agriculture in 1891, by appointment of the Governor, and has served to the present day, at one time a member of the Executive Committee, and since 1892 Cattle Commissioner of Bristol County. In Bristol, Mr. Williams was formerly a member of the school board, has been one of the assessors for several years, and is now county correspondent of the National Bureau of Agriculture. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. The members of the board met four times during the year 1895. At the meeting held January 31, a committee consisting of the president of the board and Messrs. Brown and Mowry, was appointed to go before the finance committee of the senate and house of representatives, to advocate an increase of the annual appropriation from $15,000 to $25,000. At the annual meeting held on June 30, the following officers were elected for one year: Executive Committee-Obadiah Brown, of Providence, Arlon Mowry, of Woonsocket, Horatio W. Potter, of Warwick. Secretary of the Board-George A. Stockwell, of Providence. Appraiser for the State-Obadiah Brown. Commissioner for Washington County-Beriah H. Lawton, of Wickford. Commissioner for Newport County-Thomas A. H. Tefft, of James town. Commissioner for Bristol County-William Williams, of Bristol. Commissioner for Providence County-Henry S. Turner, of Scit uate. Commissioner for Kent County-Benjamin W. Burlingame, of Warwick. At the special meeting held August 19, the secretary of the board was appointed delegate to the Farmers' National Congress, |