Chap. 351.—An ACT to constitute a united agricultural board to co-ordinate
the Virginia College of Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute and the
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, the commissioner and State
board of agriculture, and the State board of education, in co-operation
with the United State Department of Agriculture for the betterment of
agricultural, experimental and demonstration work, and generally to ad-
vance the agricultural interest of this State, and to authorize boards of
supervisors to appropriate county funds for experimental and demonstra-
tion work in their respective counties.

Approved March 17, 1910.

Whereas, experiments heretofore conducted have demonstrated that
in order successfully to encourage the adoption of improved methods of
agriculture in Virginia, applicable to every section, crop and interest, it
is mecessary that experiment stations shall be located in the different
agricultural districts of the State, which should ascertain by careful,
scientific experiments, the best methods of crop relation, fertilizing cul-
ture, control of insect pests and diseases, et cetera, of the crops most com-
monly grown, or which may be profitably grown in the respective dis
tricts and that the facts so ascertained shall be earned by the teacher,
institute lecturer and demonstrator to the people; and

Whereas, it is necessary to the fullest success of this plan that the
said Virginia College of Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute, and the
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, the commissioner and State
board of agriculture, and the State board of education should unite their
agencies in harmonious and determined efforts to advance by the methods
above set forth, and in every other legitimate and practical way, the great
agricultural interests of the State; and in order to co-ordinate harmon-
iously the efforts of these various State agencies in hearty co-operation
with the United States department of agriculture which has been so suc-
cessfully conducting its operations along these lines in Virginia; there-
fore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That a board
to be known as the united agricultural board be, and the same is hereby,
established, to be composed of the governor, the State superintendent of
public instruction, representing the State board of education; the com-
missioner of agriculture, and two members of the State board of agri-
culture, to be selected by that board; the president of the Virginia Col-
lege of Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute; the director of the Vir-
ginia Agricultural Experiment Station, and one member of the board of
visitors of those institutions to be selected by the said board; the super-
visor of the district experiment stations; the general director of demon-
stration work of the United States department of agriculture; and the
Virginia director of demonstration work of the United States department
of agriculture. The members of said board shall hold office during the
term of incumbency of the several offices which render them ex officio
members of this board ; except that the State board of agriculture and the
board of visitors of the Virginia College of Agriculture and Polytechnic
Institute, and Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, shall have
power to elect a successor to its members of the board for two-year
periods, beginning March first, nineteen hundred and ten, or in the
interim whenever its member of the board is incapacitated from serving
on said board by death, resignation or otherwise. It is further provided
also, that the officials of the United States department of agriculture,
herein designated as members of the board, shall continue in office 80
long as that department co-operates in the work for which the united
agricultural board is established.

The officers of the board shall be the governor as chairman, and 4
secretary, to be elected by the board.

2. The members of the united agricultural board shall not be entitled
to any compensation, but the Virginia members shall be reimbursed for
their actual and necessary traveling expenses and hotel bills, while en-
gaged in the discharge of their duties, to be paid out of the funds here
inafter mentioned, allotted respectively to the State agencies entitled
to membership on the board.

8. The united agricultural board shall, under such rules and regula-
tions as it may prescribe, assign to the Virginia College of Agriculture
and Polytechnic Institute the adult demonstration work and movable
schools and other like agencies when established; to the Virginia Agri-
cultural Experiment Station, under like rules and regulations, the estab-
lishment and direction of the local or district experiment stations; to
the State board of education, under like rules and regulations, the ex-
perimental and demonstration work in connection with the public schools
of the State; and to the commissioner and State board of agriculture,
under like rules and regulations, the direction and management of the
farmers’ institutes to be held in the different sections of this State; and
the said united agricultural board may adopt such other methods and
agencies, not herein specifically enumerated, as shall tend to further the
interests of agriculture, and assign to. the various agencies represented
on the united board, such duties as may seem best.

4. For the purpose of carrying this bill into effect in addition to the
money allotted by the United States department of agriculture, and the
general education board, acting through the United States general
director of demonstration work, and from other sources, the State
board of education is hereby directed to appropriate and set apart out
of the common school fund the sum of five thousand dollars annually;
the sum of five thousand dollars shall be paid annually to the commis-
sioner of agriculture; the sum of five thousand dollars shall be paid an-
nually to the Virginia College of Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute ;
the sum of five thousand dollars shall be paid annually to the Virginia
Agricultural Experiment Station, out of any fund in the treasury of
the State not otherwise appropriated ; said several sums of money to be
paid by warrants authorized by the united agricultural board, signed by
its secretary and countersigned by the chairman: provided, that all
moneys appropriated under this act, shall be used for the purposes of
this act. But nothing in this act shall apply to any funds except those
mentioned in this act. And the moneys allotted to the commissioner of
agriculture shall be used for farmers’ institutes; the moneys allotted to
the Virginia College of Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute shall be
used for adult demonstration work, movable schools, et cetera; and the
money allotted to the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station shall
be used for experimental work at the local or district experiment station,
established or to be established, and for no other purpose; and the
money appropriated by the State board of education shall be used for
experiments and demonstrations in connection with the schools of the
State. An itemized statement with all vouchers shall be reported to the
governor, and included in his annual report.

5. If it shall appear to the board that any of the work required by
this act, or which shall be prescribed by the board, is not being faithfully
and efficiently performed by the agency to which it is assigned, the board
shall at once inquire into the matter and has the power to take action
assigning said work to some other agency or in any other way that may
seem best for the faithful and efficient performance of said work. The
moneys provided and appropriated under this act shall not be available
prior to the twenty-cighth day of February, ninetcen hundred and eleven.

6. The board may determine its own by-laws and rules of procedure,
except that a meeting may be called at any time by the chairman on ten
576 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.

days’ notice, and the secretary shall issue calls for a meeting of the mem-
bers of the board, giving ten days’ notice, upon request in writing of
not less than five members, and it shall require a majority vote of the
entire membership to pass any question or resolution coming before it.
In case of a tie vote the governor shall be entitled to cast an additional
deciding vote.

?. The boards of supervisors of the several counties of the State are
hereby authorized and empowered to appropriate out of county funds for
experimental and demonstration work in their respective counties such
sums as the said boards shall deem proper not to exceed twenty dollars
for each one thousand inhabitants.

8. But nothing in this act shall apply to the Virginia Truck Experi-
ment Station. 7