Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/348

 The Department was created for the promotion of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal industry, manufactures and domestic arts; and embraces the district and county agricultural societies, the State weather and crop service and the offices of the Dairy Commissioner and the State Veterinarian. It is managed by the State Board of Agriculture, of which the Governor, President of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Dairy Commissioner and State Veterinarian are ex-officio members. An annual convention is held at the Capitol on the second Wednesday of December which elects officers and may hold a State Farmers’ Institute for discussion of topics relating to the various branches of agriculture. It also has control of the State Fairs and every agricultural interest of the State. A Year Book of Agriculture is published annually and distributed as provided by law.

In May, 1866, Mark Miller, editor of the Iowa Homestead, issued a call in that weekly agricultural journal for a meeting of persons interested in fruit growing, forestry and gardening to meet at Iowa City on the 26th of June for the purpose of organizing a State association for the promotion of horticulture. Twenty-eight persons assembled at the time and organized the Iowa State Horticultural Society. A constitution was framed and the following officers were chosen to serve one year: President, Dr. James Weed of Muscatine; vice-president, D. W. Kauffman of Des Moines; secretary, Mark Miller of Des Moines; treasurer, David Leonard of Burlington. A board of eight directors was chosen, a corresponding committee of twenty appointed, and the first annual exhibition fixed for the period from the 18th to the 21st of the following September at Burlington, in connection with the Fair of the State Agricultural Society. The object of the society was stated to be “the promotion and encouragement