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PRESIDENT'S REPORT.

1

To the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:

The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture is herewith respectfully submitted to your honorable body. The Report I will be found to embrace, as the law directs, "the proceedings of the Board for the past year, and an abstract of the proceedings of the several County Agricultural Societies, as well as a general view of the condition of agriculture throughout the State," &c.

The active operations of the Board for the past year have been limited to making the necessary arrangements for holding the Annual State Fair, and to give encouragement, by means of premiums, to the better culture of some important field crops. The Annual Fair was held in the city of Cleveland, and was well attended, and doubtless contributed greatly to stimulate those present to attempt the better management of their farms, and higher styles of culture.

The reports from County Societies give evidence that the agriculture of the State was not paralyzed by the withdrawal of laborers from the State for the defense of the country. The increased use of machinery, moved by animal, water, and steam power, in farming operations, has enabled farmers to accomplish the usual amount of labor with a diminished number of hands. The County Fairs of this year have been better attended than those of last year, and have been held in a larger number of counties.

For a general statement of the condition of the agriculture of the State, you are respectfully referred to the report on this subject, made to the Board by its Corresponding Secretary.

An exhibit of the financial condition of the Board will be found in the Treasurer's report. It will be seen from this that a larger balance now stands to the credit of the Board than at any previous period of its history.

The Board would again respectfully but earnestly recommend the acceptance, on the part of the State of Ohio, of the grant of land made by Congress for the establishment and support of agricultural schools. There

cannot be a question among the well informed of the utility of such institutions, neither can there be much doubt of the great necessity of such an institution in Ohio at the present time. Nearly every other Northern State has already accepted the Congressional grant on the conditions specified, and has thus obtained an advantage over Ohio of earlier and better selections from the public domain.

The Board would also again urge the propriety of an annual appropriation of $3,000 to defray the expenses of this Board, and for the promotion of its objects, in lieu of the present agricultural fund derived from escheats of lands and show licenses. The revenue of the Board derived from these sources has been so irregular and uncertain as seriously to embarrass the operations of the Board, and to prevent any systematic course of investigations and experiments, which would otherwise have been undertaken. It is with regret on the part of the Board that its operations have been thus limited by the want of funds. Agricultural surveys, original investigations and experiments, the publication of a quarterly journal, with other kindred labors, would have been cheerfully undertaken, if the sum placed annually at the disposal of the Board would have justified the expenditure.

Trusting that the General Assembly will be able to devise measures adapted to promote not only the interests of agriculture, but all the best interests of the State,

I am your obedient servant,

AVON, Dec. 81st, 1863.

N. S. TOWNSHEND,

President of the Board.

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