Department of Agriculture and Public Works.

Chap. 5.—Deeds, contracts, &c., with the Department need not be sealed. The Superintendent of Education is ex officio a member of the Board of Agriculture. The L.G. in C. appoints the Secretary of the Council of Agriculture &c., and approves of or rejects its by-laws. A duty of the Council is to organize in common with the Council of Arts and Manufactures a permanent Exhibition Committee to consist of 10 members from each to be appointed by the C. C. L. who may add to it equal numbers from each Council. This Committee organizes and has charge of the Provincial Exhibition, the secretaries of both Councils assisting. The official journal of agriculture is to be published under direction of the C. C L upon conditions approved by the L. G. in C. The Counties of Bonaventure, Charlevoix, Chicoutimi, Gaspé, Ottawa, and Pontiac, may be divided into two parts each for agricultural purposes, the grants to each division not exceeding $500 per annum, whether one or more societies are formed therein. Hereafter the union of County Societies as provided in 32 V., c. 15, ss. 50 and 51 is subject to the approval of the Council not the C.C.L. The annual meetings of, and meetings to form County Societies, are to be held on the 3rd Wednesday in December; at each meeting a director may be elected for each parish or municipality, and as many more as are necessary to make the board nine. But; ten or more subscribers in each parish who have paid their subscription for the coming year, at a meeting convened by the Mayor or a J.P. after ten days notice, and held in the week preceding the general meeting, may elect the Director therefor. The Directors elect the President, Vice-President and Secretary. The Presidents of Mechanics' Institutes cannot claim a place on the direction because of $10 payment. The security given by the Secretary Treasurer of a Society is to be renewed annually. The annual notice by the Secretary of the Council of Agriculture to the Secretary Treasurer of each Society respecting the transmission of the affidavit of subscription, must be given on 1st July. The affidavit must also contain a declaration that the Secretary Treasurer has given security. Any member of either Council absent from its meetings for a whole year ceases to be a member unless he has given satisfactory reasons to the C. C. L. The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Montreal, may at a general meeting change its name to the Horticultural and Pomological Society, and reorganize with a board of nine,—officers to be elected as in a County Society. Its objects are to be to encourage the cultivation of flowers, fruits and vegetables and bee culture, to collect information respecting the fruits best adapted for cultivation in the Province, the holding exhibitions in Montreal, and the publication of useful information. If its exhibitions are opened to the whole Province and annual returns furnished to the C. C. L., it is entitled to a grant of $1,000 per annum.