8 AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

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division of real estate held jointly; the granting of rights of posses- sion, redemptions,&c.; the administration of the laws for the pro- tection of forests and fields, game and fish, and riparian rights; the regulation of drainage and dykes, the public studs, and the insti- tutions for agricultural education, as well as the direction of the societies for the improvement and encouragement of agriculture and rural economy.

Subordinate to the Department of Agriculture is the Board of Rural Economy, constituting a technically advisory authority, which is especially charged with the direction of the agricultural societies. It was organized in 1842, and is composed at present of a president, secretary, and a board of ten consulting members, some of them

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being practical agriculturists, while others are well versed in various 1 branches connected with the subject, among whom is the Director of h the Bureau of Statistics, which is subordinate to the Department of 3 the Interior, and charged with taking the general, as well as the 3

agricultural statistics of the country. In the transactions of this N board, the members individually discourse or write upon such subjects I as they are best fitted by their knowledge and ability. The board is 1 furnished with regular reports from the societies, and again it sub- mits its own reports to the Minister of Agriculture. It also publishes, in monthly numbers, the Annals of Agriculture, containing its own transactions and such other articles as are deemed useful and worthy of diffusion. A

The support afforded by government to agriculture consists, there- d

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fore, in the extensive and judicious organization of its department, 3

its proper legislation, agricultural education, liberal appropriations, 1

and temporary advances of money, together with such other measures

as are adapted to its general encouragement. The societies them- 1 selves are distributed over the nine provinces of the kingdom, which E contains about 17,000, 000 inhabitants, and embraces an area of n 107,960 square miles. In each province there is one central or gen- h eral society, or more, surrounded by subordinate societies, to which Ot again, in some cases, are attached minor clubs or associations. Aside h from this centralization, there are other societies, having no connection with the above, all, however, acting under the direction of the Board of Rural Economy. The central societies exercise a general super- 1 intendence, direction, and control over the subordinate and minor ones, encouraging and aiding them, suggesting and assisting in agri- cultural improvements and education. Each central society has a 1 fund, to which all the respective subordinate societies contribute, to. defray the expenses incurred in furnishing agricultural information, 8 in holding exhibitions, and in the general advancement of their com- b mon interests. Collectively, they promote the common cause, by 3 meetings and exhibitions, by distributing publications and seeds, by establishing schools, experimental farms, and trial grounds, as well as 1 by other institutions appertaining to the promotion of this great 8 branch of national prosperity. 1 The following table exhibits the distribution, membership, and 1 annual expenditures of the several societies in the kingdom:—