Chap. 106.—An ACT to incorporate the Virginia State Agricultural
and Mechanical society.

Approved February 8, 1888.

Whereas it is made known to the legislature of Virginia,
That the act passed December thirteenth, eighteen hundred
and fifty-three, entitled an act to incorporate the Virginia
state agricultural society, and the act amendatory thereof,
passed February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-
seven, are inadequate to meet the enlarged wants of the agri-
cultural and mechanical interest of the state; and whereas it
is requested by said Virginia state agricultural society that
an act be passed by the general assembly of Virginia to the
end that said wants may be more fully met; now, therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
Ashton Starke, president, and F. T. Glasgow, 8. W. Corbin,
J. B. Beverly,,R. C. Kent, R. T. W. Duke, Dr. J. A. Reid, C.
J. Sale, J. D. H. Ross, W. P. Dupuy, Dr. D. S. Watson, M. B.
Rowe, W. E. Grant, Lewis Ginter, R. W. Burke and Dr. M.
Q. Holt, members of the executive committee of the Virginia

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state agricultural society, be and they are hereby constituted
a body politic and corporate by the name and style of the
Virginia state agricultural and mechanical society.

2. The capital stock of said body, politic and corporate,
shall consist of the real and personal estate now owned, or
which may be acquired hereafter, by the Virginia state agri-
cultural society, to be divided into six thousand shares of the
value of twenty dollars for each share.

3. The said body corporate shall, out of the six thousand
shares of the capital stock, issue one share of the stock of the
corporation to each life member of the Virginia state agri-
cultural society now living, which shall be the absolute prop-
erty of the party to whom the same is issued, or in the event
the life member elects to retain his privileges as such under
the constitution and by-laws of the Virginia state agricul-
tural society in licu of such certificate of stock, he shall be
entitled to receive from said Virginia agricultural and
mechanical society a certificate in accordance therewith, and
it shall be the duty of said society to issue a certificate to
that effect.

4. In the event that the city of Richmond is willing to

convert the debt owing by the Virginia state agricultural
society into the stock of said Virginia agricultural and me-
chanical society, the said society shall issue to said city of
Richmond shares of the capital stock to an amount equal to
said debt.

5. The said corporation herein named, shall, immediately
after the passage of this act, convene the members of said
agricultural society, after having first published, for thirty
days in the daily papers published in the city of Richmond,
notice of the time and place of meeting, and submit the same
to them for their acceptance or rejection; and in the event of
their acceptance, the said Virginia state agricultural and
mechanical society shall proceed at once to pass by-laws for
the government of said society, and shall elect a president,
three vice-presidents, and twelve other officers, who shall con-
stitute an executive committee for the government of said
society, of which committee the president shall be ex-officio
chairman. Three of the other twelve officers shall be from
the city of Richmond and nine from the state outside of the
said city.

6. The real and personal property of said corporation shall
be exempt from all taxes by the state, subject to the right of
the legislature at any time to revoke this exemption.

7. The society shall provide a seal, and it may sue and be
sued as any other corporative body, and may obtain loans
and pledge its property by deed or otherwise as security
therefor when authorized by a majority vote of a general
meeting of the society on recommendation of the executive
committee, or the said society may in like manner issue its
bonds to an amount not excecding fifty thousand dollars, the
principal payable at a date not exceeding twenty years, the
interest not exceeding six per centum per annum, payable

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semi-annually; and the said bonds shall, from the date of their
issue, upon being entered upon the lien docket of the hust-
ings court of the city of Richmond, operate as a lien on the
real estate of said society.

8. The said body corporate may sell and convey the real
estate of the corporation at any time it may deem it to the
interest of said society to do so, subject, however, to the rati-
fication of such sale by the stockholders, in a meeting called
for the purpose, after thirty days’ notice in one or more of the
daily papers published in the city of Richmond. But the
proceeds of such sale shall be reinvested in or near the city
of Richmond in other real estate, and in the erection of such
buildings thereon for the same uses and purposes for which
said real estate is now held*by said corporation.

9. Upon the acceptance of this act by the said Virginia
state agricultural society, the act of December thirteenth,
eighteen hundred and fifty-three, incorporating the Virginia
state agricultural society, and the act of February fifteenth,
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, amendatory thereof, are
hereby repealed.

10. This act shall be subject to any alterations, amend-
ments or modification at the pleasure of the general assembly.

11. This act shall be in force trom its passage. ,