TO THE READER.

This is the eleventh volume of the series of publications designed as part of its work, by the founders of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. Its contents and illustrations will compare favorably with its predecessors, and be found of use to those into whose hands it may fall.

The Executive Committee having in view the success of the great Centennial International Exhibition at Philadelphia, after considering the subject of holding an exhibition of this Society during the fall of 1876, decided that it was proper to postpone such action, so that the people should not be diverted. from a much more attractive and instructive exhibition than our Society with its limited resources, could hope to present. The success which has attended the great exhibition is very gratifying to the Pennsylvania Society.

The Executive Committee voted one thousand dollars to the Centennial Commission, to be awarded under its direction. It is hoped that a full report of the disposition of this donation will be made before this volume passes through the press.

The proceedings of the Society and Executive Committee are given, completing the official record.

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CONSTITUTION AND LIFE MEMBERS

OF THE

PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,

a body cor

The act at

The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society was created porate" by the Legislature, on the 29th day of March, 1851. large can be found in the statutes for 1851, and in previous volumes of the transactions of this Society. The Society sprung from a meeting held at Marrisburg, on the 21st of January, 1851, in which all the counties of the State were represented. On the 22d the meeting had taken the form of a society, electing its first president and officers. On the 20th of January, 1852, it held its first annual meeting at Harrisburg, where, in the previous September, its first exhibition had been held, with a good degree of encouragement. Exhibitions have since been held at Lancaster, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Wyoming, Norristown, Williamsport, Easton, Scranton and Erie, with varying success, but always doing something toward developing the agricultural resources of the State.

The concerns of the Society are entrusted to an Executive Committee, consisting of a president, twenty-seven vice presidents, one from each of the Congressional districts into which the State is divided, five additional members, all the ex-presidents, a corresponding and a recording secretary, a treasurer, a chemist and geologist, and a librarian, in all, as at present constituted, a committee of forty-five.

The constitution has been frequently, but not substantially, amended since its original adoption in 1852, and now stands as it is given herewith. A list of life members is embodied in this issue. It has been impossible to preserve a necrological register, and therefore lapses by death are not noted. The list comprises the names of all life members previously to the first January, 1876; a total of 821 names, representing all parts of the State.

CONSTITUTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The name of the Society shall be THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The objects of this Society are to foster and improve agriculture, horticulture and the domestic and household arts.

WHO ARE MEMBERS.

SECTION 1. The Society shall consist of all such persons as shall pay to the Treasurer not less than two dollars, and annually thereafter not less than two dollars; and also of honorary and corresponding members; the names of the members to be recorded by the Secretary.

The officers of county agricultural societies in this State, or delegations therefrom, shall be members ex officio of this Society.

The payment of twenty dollars shall constitute life membership, and exempt the members so contributing from all annual payments.

OFFICERS.

SECTION 2. The officers of the Society shall be a President, a Vice President from each Congressional district, three-fourths of whom shall be practical agriculturists, or horticulturists, a Treasurer, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Librarian, an Agricultural Chemist and Gelogist, and such assistants as the Society may find essential to the transaction of its business, an Executive Committee consisting of the above named oficers, five additional members, with the ex-presidents of the Society.

OF THE PRESIDENT.

SECTION 3. The President shall have a general superintendence of all the affairs of the Society. In case of the death, illness or inability of the Presi dent to perform the duties of his office, the Executive Committee shall select a Vice President to act in his stead, who shall have the same power and perform the same duties as the President, until the next annual meeting.

OF THE VICE PRESIDENTS.

It shall be the duty of the Vice Presidents to take charge of the affairs of the association in their several districts; to advance all its objects; to call upon farmers to report as to the condition of agriculture in their neighborhood; to ask for information as to the modes of cultivation adopted by different farmers; and, as far as in their power, to make known the resources of their districts, the nature of its soil, its geological character and all such matter as may interest farmers in every part of the State.