Kept ; Agri 3-12-07

REPORT

OF THE

President of the State Board of Agriculture

and Immigration.

His Excellency, A. J. MONTAGUE,

Governor of Virginia.

SIR, AS President of the Board of Agriculture and Immigration, it gives me great pleasure to state that the work of the Department of Agriculture is making rapid progress. The members of the Board have a sincere desire to do everything in their power to advance the agricultural interests of the State. The attendance at the meetings have been full, and the deliberations of the body harmonious. The work as outlined in the statement of my predecessor last year in the geological work and farmers' institutes in connection with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, has progressed satisfactorily.

The fertilizer law has been vigorously executed by our very efficient Commissioner, and is giving valuable protection to the farmer from fraud and loss in the fertilizers he buys.

The farmers' institutes held have been numerous and well attended by the people, and this work will be continued as before. This Board is made by the Constitution a Department of Immigration also, but the Legislature has never made any appropriation for immigration work. The Board has appointed a committee to ask for an appropriation by the Legislature to be used in advertising the resources of the State in other States and in some of the foreign countries to induce people to buy our idle lands, also to bring labor here to work upon the farms. Your able assistance is respectfully requested in this most important matter.

The experiments that have been made and are in contemplation at the Test Farm will increase the value of the farm to the farmers in the State. Improvements on worn out land are necessarily slow and requires