COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SOCIETIES.

SEC. 4051. Associations for the purpose of agriculture, etc., may be incorporated, when-powers, etc.-Whenever fifty freeholders within this State shall present a petition to the county court of the county in which they or a majority of them reside, setting forth that they desire to organize and be incorporated for the purpose of promoting improvements in agricultural manufactures and the raising of stock, and the court shall be satisfied that such persons are freeholders of this State, the court shall, by an order, declare the petitioners incorporated for the purposes specified in this section, and thenceforth the petitioners shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of the (naming it) county agricultural and mechanical society, and by that name they and their successors shall be known in law, have perpetual succession, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts and in all actions, pleas and matters whatsoever, and shall have power to purchase, hold and receive any quantity of land not exceeding one hundred acres, with such buildings and improvements as may be placed thereon, and any other property, not exceeding in value fifty thousand dollars; and may, by vote, determine that thereafter the members of said society shall be composed of such persons as shall subscribe at least one share to the capital stock thereof, in shares not exceeding twenty-five dollars each; said shares to be personal property and transferable by agreement; but no transfer shall be binding on the society until reported to and approved by the board of directors. The amount of such capital stock shall, from time to time, be fixed by the stockholders or board of directors, provided the same shall, at no time, exceed one hundred thousand dollars, and may convey, lease, sell and dispose of the property of the society, or any part thereof, for the benfit of the society, and may have a common seal, and break and alter the same at pleasure. (Laws 1867, p. 3, 1.)

SEC. 4052. Directors to be elected, when-term of office-powers and duties-vacancies, how filled-who shall not be a director.-Within thirty days from the date of the order of the county court, any number of the petitioners exceeding twenty, may proceed to organize such society by electing nine directors, who shall hold their offices one year, and until their successors are elected; and the directors, when so elected, shall collectively form a board for the government of such society; and in such board shall be vested all the corporate powers and duties of every society incorporated as provided in this article; and for the purpose of electing the directors, there shall be held, annually, a general meeting of the members of the society. All vacancies in the board of directors shall be filled by appointment of the board. No person, not a member of the society, shall be a director. (G. S. 321, & 2.)

SEC 4053. Directors to meet and select officers, when.-Every board of directors shall assemble within twenty days after their election, and choose a president of their number, and some other persons as secretary, treasurer, collector and such

other officers, servants and agents as may be necessary, remove them from office and prescribe their duties; and all proceedings of the board shall be public. (G. S. 321, 23.)

SEC. 4054. Dulty of officers.-It shall be the duty of the president to preside at all meetings of the board and of the society, and in case of his absence, such other person as the members present shall appoint; and it shall be the duty of the secretary to keep a record of the proceedings of the directors and of the society; and the treasurer shall give bond and security, to the acceptance of the board of directors, for the benefit of the society, in such sum as they, or a majority of them, shall determine, conditioned that he will faithfully receive and pay over, on their order, all moneys or other articles, the property of the society, that may come into his hands as treasurer, which bond shall be deposited with the secretary of the board of directors; and the said treasurer shall keep fair and accurate entries of all moneys and other articles by him received as treasurer, and from whom received, and to whom and for what purposes paid out, and make report of the financial operations of his office as often as he may be directed by the board of directors. (G. S. 322, 4.)

SEC. 4055. Majority of board a quorum-general powers.-The said board, a majority of whom shall form a quorum, shall have power to make, ordain and adopt a constitution and all necessary by-laws, ordinances, rules and regulations for the government of the board of directors and of the society, and for the promotion of the objects for which it is designed; and the president of the board shall cause the same to be carried into effect; provided, such constitution, by-laws, ordinances, rules and regulations shall not be inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State. (G. S. 322, 5.)

SEC. 4056. Money to be appropriated, how.—All moneys paid by members and others, and donations made to the society, shall be appropriated, under the direction of said board, in conformity to such constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations as may be ordained and established for the government of the society, and for the advancement and encouragement of the objects of the society. (G. S. 322, 6.)

SEC. 407. County court may appropriate money to the society, when.-The county court of any county in which there shall be a society organized according to this article, or any special act of incorporation, shall have the power and may, if it shall be deemed expedient, appropriate out of the county treasury, for the benefit of the society, the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars in any one year; and the money so appropriated shall be drawn by the treasurer of the society on a proper warrant; provided, said money shall be annually awarded by the board of directors in premiums, or expended by them in the purchase of premiums, to be known as "the (name the county) court premiums," to be awarded according to the rules, regulations and by-laws of the society; and provided further, that not more than one such premium shall be awarded to the same animal or article of exhibition by the same county society. (G. S. 322, § 7.)

SEC. 4058. Directors to repoit at each annual meeting-copy of report to be transmitted to State Board of Agriculture.-At each annual meeting of the society, the board of directors shall report, in writing, the number of members and the financial condition of their society; the quantity and character of property owned by it, and the quality and cost of improvement of the same; the number and value of premiums awarded at their annual fair; the number and character of the animals and articles exhibited; a statement of the probable quantity of the staple commodities of the county, and the prices current thereof, and such other information

in relation to the agricultural and mechanical interests of the county, as they may deem worthy of general notice; and a copy of the reports so made shall be transmitted to the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, to be disposed of as provided in the next succeeding section. (G. S. 322, & 8.)

SEC. 4059. State Board to report to General Assembly.-The Missouri State Board of Agriculture shall, at each session of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, report faithfully all the facts, statistics and information contained in the reports transmitted to them from the county agricultural and mechanical societies, organized and incorporated under the provisions of this article, and such other facts, statistics and information as they may gather from other counties in this State in regard to agricultural, mechanical and domestic manufactures and productions, and to the raising of the various breeds of stock. (G. S. 323, § 9.)

SEC. 4060. Property shall be held, for what purpose-The land and other property which may be held by any society under the provisions of this article, shall be held by the society for the sole purpose, and none other whatsoever, of erecting inclosures, buildings and other improvements calculated and designed for meetings of the society, and for exhibition of various breeds of horses, cattle, mules, and other stock, and of agricultural, mechanical and domestic manufactures and productions, for the purchase and importation, and the keeping thereof, of such foreign breeds of stock as the board of directors may deem advantageous to the interests to the country. (G. S. 323, 10.)

SEC. 4061. Who shall be members —The members of any society, organized under the provisions of this article, shall be composed of such persons, and none others, as shall have subscribed their names as such in the books in which the proceedings of the society and of the board of directors are or shall be recorded, and paid annually to the treasurer of the society such sum, not exceeding five dollars in any one year, as may be established by the rules, by-laws and regulations of the society as a membership fee; and such persons shall be members only for the year for which they shall have paid such fee. (G. S. 323, 11.)

SEC. 4062. Order of incorporation to be recorded.-A duly authenticated copy of the order of the county court, provided for in section four thousand and fifty-one, shall be filed and recorded in such manner as conveyances of land are, by law, directed to be recorded in the office of the recorder of the county, within three months after such order shall be made. (G. S. 323, 12.)

SEC. 4063. Constitution, etc., shall be printed, etc.-The constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations of the society and board of directors shall be printed and circulated among the members of the society within thirty days after their adoption. (G. S. 323, 13.)

SEC. 4061. Property shall be sold, when.-Whenever a majority of two-thirds of the members of any society organized under the provisions of this article, shall, at an annual meeting, declare such society dissolved; or if, from any other cause, said society shall be dissolved or fail to meet and pursue the objects of the society for the period of five consecutive years, then the real estate and all other property held by it shall be sold for cash in hand, at public auction, before the court house door of the county, after thirty days notice given in some newspaper published in the county, if there be one, and, if not, by ten printed advertisements set up in ten public places in the county, describing the property to be sold, and the time, place and terms of sale. Such sale shall be conducted by the directors, or a majority of them, chosen and elected as provided by this article. (G. S. 323, 14.)

SEC. 4065. Partias guilty of misconduct shall be arrested, etc., when.-At any fair, show or exhibition, held by any incorporated agricultural and mechanical society,

every person who shall, without the permission of the officers of such society, enter within any inclosure which may be used by such society as an agricultural and mechanical fair, and every person guilty of disorderly conduct, or such conduct as may interrupt or be prejudicial to the interests of such fair or exhibition whatever, within the enclosure for the same, or at a distance within two hundred yards of such inclosure, shall be liable to immediate arrest by any officer of such society, and to the payment of five dollars to the society holding such fair, show or exhibition, to be recoverable at the suit of such society before any justice of the peace of the county in which such fair, show or exhibition may be held. (G.S. 323, 15.)

SEC. 4066. Societies may perpetuate their organization, when.- All agricultural societies in this State, established under the act above cited, and that have failed to keep up their organizations as required by the law approved November 23, 1855, are hereby authorized and empowered to pursue the objects of such societies and perpetuate their organization as though no failure to observe the law had occurred. (G. S. 324, 16.)

TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE SECRETARY OF THE

MISSOURI STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

To the General Assembly of the State of Missouri:

The crop season of 1887 has been in its main characteristics a duplication of that of 1886, much intensified. Like the season of 1886, it opened with the most cheering prospects for crops. Wheat was favored both winter and spring, and I record the largest and best wheat crop raised in recent years in Missouri. In this regard it was perhaps the most favored State of the Union.

Before the blighting influence of the subsequent drought was felt in its full force, a good crop of oats was harvested, and a medium crop of clover. Corn, which promised down into July, to be one of the best, if not the best crop raised in the history of the State, harvested considerably less than an average crop, while timothy, and especially potatoes and all late crops, suffered severely. The table of crop yields found in another part of the report, will give the total for each one of our staple crops.

Another table will reveal the rain fall of the season. It will show a very great seasonal deficiency of rain, especially for the latter half of the year, and that this monthly deficiency of rain fall continued. until the opening of winter. Its decided effect upon our pastures, which have suffered severely, can only be understood in connection. with the fact that the water in the soil, at the opening of the season, was impaired in amount through the failure of an average rain fall for the year 1886.