A tolerably full review of the Elmira fair having been printed in the Society's Journal and being appended to this report, it is not deemed necessary to give more space now to that subject than to express the appreciation by the Executive Committee of their cordial reception by the people of that city, and of the thoroughness with which the contractors for the buildings carried out their undertaking. The reports of the county societies, so far as received, indicate, generally, success and prosperity. Few of these societies, however, at present do more than hold their annual fairs. The town and union societies also give satisfactory reports, and some of them display great energy and spirit in the conduct of their operations. The reports of the Farmers' clubs are, however, the most interesting and satisfactory as a whole, that are made to the State Society. Their operations extend throughout the year, many of them holding weekly meetings for discussions and the interchange of information; some of them are forming libraries, and their management in general seems to be energetic, practical and intelligent. Judging by what is known of those that report to the Society, and there are others believed to be equally successful that do not report, these associations are worthy of high commendation, and should receive all possible encouragement as among the most useful institutions of the time.

The Society has, during the season, prosecuted supplementary inves tigations on the subject of abortion in dairy herds, under the direction of Dr. Carmalt, the commissioner in charge, whose services have been gratuitously rendered in aid of the cause of agriculture upon his own proposal, which was accepted by the Society because the fund appropriated to the object was nearly exhausted. The area of inquiry has been the dairy region of the State of Ohio, where this difficulty of abortion has not yet appeared, the object being to compare the management of an exempt dairy district with that of the infected districts heretofore fully examined. Dr. Carmalt's report will be presented at the present meeting. The tenor of the information elicited is to confirm the deductions of the report of last season, that the cause is likely to be found in the prolongation of the period of giving milk, the persistent milking during the latter part of the term of pregnancy both weakening and irritating the organs of reproduction, an evil accumulating in injurious tendency by its being continued from generation to generation, whereby the constitutional weakness is probably confirmed and made hereditary.

The esteemed entomologist of the Society has, during the year, pursued his work and has accumulated much valuable matter in his

department. Ill health has, however, prevented his so digesting and confirming the results of his observations as to admit of presenting them at this time, and they cannot be given to the Society for publication until later in the year.

The correspondence of the Society during the year with the county

and town societies and farmers' clubs has increased, but is still not so intimate and frequent as is desirable. The Executive Committee wish it to be understood, not only that they consider it the office of the Society, but also that it is the earnest wish of the officers to render to the other agricultural associations of the State every aid and service that it is in the power of this central organization to afford. There is no desire to interfere with their independence of action or with the line of policy they may adopt; but whenever the State Society can give assistance, it stands ready to do so. Having its office at the capital, it is frequently useful to the county and town societies as a business agent, and it desires also in its monthly journal to afford a vehicle of communication between the several associations if they wish to avail themselves of it. If they would, it is possible they might do good to themselves and to each other. The reports to the State Society, which the law wisely requires as evidence of the continued practical usefulness of the local societies, may also, as is notably the case with some of them, among which the Jefferson, Saratoga and Queens county societies, and the Little Falls Farmers' Club, are deserving of special mention, be made the means not only of communicating valuable information, but of encouraging and animating the working members in each organization by enlarging the range of their usefulness and appreciation, extending the field illumined by the light shining often in a dark place.

The correspondence of the Society and its exchanges with the societies of other States and in foreign countries have continued as heretofore, and the library of the Society has been increased by the gifts from the other State societies and from those abroad, especially those of England, Scotland and France, as also by valuable works presented by the French and Prussian Ministries of Agriculture, contributed by the kind offices of Dr. Flügel of Leipzig, from the Royal Academy of Vienna, from Denmark, Sweden, Bavaria, Switzerland and Italy. The Society is also under obligations to Mr. J. J. Mechi, of England; to Professor Cameron, of Ireland, and to one of its own members, Mr. J. L. Tappan, residing at present in Paris, for valuable contributions and correspondence. Mr. Tappan appears to be ever mindful of the Society during his European travels, and con

stantly forwards agricultural publications and copies of newspapers containing matter of agricultural interest.

As will be learned from the report of the Treasurer, the financial position of the Society has not materially changed since last year. The receipts of the exhibition at Elmira were about $5,500 less than those of the Rochester fair in 1868, and, in consequence, since the expenses, except premiums which are slightly increased, are about the same as in the previous year, the Society has not been able to make any addition to its reserve fund. Indeed, but for the interest upon its investment the Society's expenses would have exceeded the receipts. As it is, we carry over within a small amount, the same balance in cash and securities as by last year's statement, the difference not exceeding $300 being, however, on the credit side of the accouut. The income of the Society depending mainly upon the receipts of the fairs and being, therefore, variable and uncertain, while its expenses are incapable of much reduction, its financial condition is now, as in the past, a matter of anxious concern to its officers and members. In order that our Society shall be useful two things are necessary: first, that it shall have ample pecuniary resources, and second, that it shall have a numerous body of earnest working members and supporters. If the first condition be secured and the management be at all liberal and judicious, it is safe to say that the second will naturally follow, for men will readily join and afterward certainly become active attached friends and supporters of a society from which they are assured of deriving benefit. In agricultural societies as in all other human enterprises the maxim holds good that "nothing succeeds like success," and in all popular organizations like ours pecuniary success, sound financial prosperity, is the beginning of all other success.

The society has up to this time pursued the policy of holding its annual fairs in all parts of the State. It has prescribed certain conditions, namely: That the grounds and buildings, with forage for stock and a small contribution toward wages of laborers, be furnished by the town or city desiring the fair; and it has under this system, so far, always been tendered a welcome reception in one or other of the towns of our State. The greatly increased cost of providing these requirements, and the increased labor and responsibility devolved upon the officers in seeing the conditions fulfilled, resulting from the changes during the past ten years in the cost of labor and materials and from the continual expansion of the exhibitions, have been causes of serious concern. The increase in the expense has seemed to bear

heavily upon the communities from which the Society has accepted invitations. This has not been because the fairs have not brought profit enough to the towns in which they have been held, the reverse is the case; but because the profit has not always returned to the liberal and public spirited citizens whose names are found upon the list of subscribers to the funds, in proportion to their individual liberality.

There is still another consideration. Owing to the increased accommodation required, and the change in the value of money, the cost of providing for a fair of the State Society has become very considerable, and it seems wasteful and improvident to devote large sums to the erection of buildings to be used but one season. Hence the policy some time since entered upon at Utica and Rochester, of providing grounds and buildings which, though not specially devoted to the purpose or entirely adequate, have yet been so kept up as to supply the required accommodations in a greater or less degree, and therefore to diminish the outlay in each year of the Society's visits.

The disadvantages of the present system have for many years engaged the attention of the thoughtful members of the Society. The plan of having one fixed place for our State fairs was long ago proposed, and to some extent supported, but after full discussion was wisely rejected by the Society. The evils, in fact the ruin, that would result from making the Society a local instead of a State institution, have been heretofore conclusively pointed out, and are, indeed, sufficiently obvious.

Things being so, the only plan that presents any advantages over the present one is that called the rotatory system. Of this we have a successful example in the neighboring province of Ontario, formerly called Upper Canada and Canada West, and the committee think it worth while to call attention to the principal features of the plan there adopted, and now satisfactorily working.

The Agricultural Association of Ontario, or Upper Canada, is, as is well known to many of our members, one of great activity and usefulness, and fully equal, if not superior to ours in the extent of its exhibitions, in the attendance at its fairs, in the number of its members and in the amount of its prizes.

Having previously been managed upon the same system as ours, a change was made by the Upper Canada Society in 1856, when the city of Kingston erected permanent buildings for the fairs at a cost of $11,500 to the city and neighboring country, and $4,000 given by the Society; the conditions being that the fair should be held there

once in four years. The government of the province furnished the ground, and the $15,500 went to provide the buildings. The population of Kingston at that time was about 12,000, not much more than many of our villages, and the neighboring country was and is both new and poor.

The next Canadian town to enter into the arrangement was Toronto, in 1857, with a population, in 1860, of about 50,000, now about 65,000. Here, as before, and in each of the subsequent cases, the provincial government furnished the land. The erections cost upward of $30,500, of which the Society paid about $5,000, and, subsequently, the city paid over $7,000 more to perfect the buildings. At Hamilton, the next place that came in, the city expended about $16,000, the Society adding $4,000, total, $20,000 for buildings; and the quartette was completed, in 1863, by adding grounds at London, at about the same outlay and in the same proportions as at Hamilton. The population of Hamilton was, at the time, about 16,000, and of London, about 14,000.

It is stated, upon authority which the committee deem unquestionable, that the cities above named are all thoroughly convinced of the policy of their investments, and satisfied with the results; so much so that each, whenever the fair is held within its limits, contributes voluntarily a large sum, as high in some years as $10,000, to add to the attractiveness of the exhibition, and to insure its success.

It should be mentioned, however, that the interest in their fairs is more general in Upper Canada than in New York, and that the government of the Province is more liberal in its appropriations to agriculture than ours. The annual appropriation to the Association of Ontario for its general objects, aside from specific appropriations, and from the maintenance of an agricultural department, is $4,000, and to the county societies $50,000, of which ten per cent goes to the Provincial Association; and all this is done in a community not nearly equaling in population the State of New York, and possessing not one-third the wealth.

The example, of which the details are here sketched, is believed, by the Executive Committee, to be worthy of serious consideration by the Society, by the Legislature and by the public.

There remains to the committee the mournful duty of recording the ravages made by death in the ranks of the Society during the past year. Our last annual meeting was overshadowed with sadness and sorrow by the news of the loss of Herman Ten Eyck Foster, a member of the Society and of the Executive Board, than whom none