The annual meeting of this Society was held at the Capitol, in the city of Trenton, on Wednesday, the 15th of January last, at eleven o'clock a.m. The meeting was fairly attended, a very large proportion of the stock represented, and was one of considerable interest. At the morning session the reports of the Executive Committee and the Treasurer were presented, and certain changes made in the by-laws of the Society ; the afternoon session was mainly occupied in listening to a paper read by Mr. P. T. Quinn, on the subject of Fruit Culture in the State of New Jersey. This paper took a broad view of the whole subject, and was replete with valuable instruction, the result of a large experience by the author. The dis-cussions and desultory talk which ensued on this and kindred subjects were full of interest, and such as mark these agricultural meetings and make them attractive. The election for officers for the ensuing year was held at twelve o'clock noon, and was by ballot, resulting in the unanimous election of the following:

Board Of Directors

En. N. N. Hal-sted, N. S. Rue, Col. R. S. Swords, Wm. M. Force, Benjamin Haines, His Excellency Marcus L. Ward, George R. Dunn, Peter H. Ballantine, Wm. H. McClave, P. T. Quinn, John Boylan, S. G. Sturges, Hon. Amos Clark, Jr., E. G. Brown, D. D. Buchanan, J. M. Pruden, J. S. Buckelew, H. D. Van Nostrand, W. G. Schenck, John Rutherfurd, T. W. Satterthwaite, F. W. Woodward, J. V. D. Hoagland, J. J. Irick, Benj. Acton, and Isaac R. Cornell at large.

At a subsequent meeting of the Board for Organization, held the same day, Gen. N. N. Halsted, of Hudson Co., was elected President; N. S. Rue, Esq., of Monmouth, Vice-President; Col. R. S. Swords, of Essex, Corresponding Secretary; William M. Force, Esq., of Essex, Recording Secretary; Benjamin Haines, Esq., of Union, Treasurer.

And in conjunction with these gentlemen, George R. Dunn, Esq., of Essex; Hon. Amos Clark, Jr., of Union; Wm. H. Mc-Qlave, Esq., of Essex, were elected to constitute the Executive Committee.

As among the matters of most general interest, we quote from the report of the Executive Committee, which we regret not having space enough to insert in full. This report, after a comprehensive yet suc-eint statement of the work of the Society during the past year, proceeds as follows : " And now it may be asked, What have we to do ? Are we to rest on what we have already achieved? Are we to await in quiet expectation the coming round of another annual exhibition and trust to the results that may then be developed, and catch our inspiration from the hour ? If such were our course, we should prove false to our responsible duties and to our high destiny. We must be up and doing. This is an age of progress - wonderful progress. We must either keep up with its march, or be left behind in useless obscurity. The advance in agricultural science, as compared with that of even the last generation, is truly wonderful. In nothing is this fact more strongly evidenced than in the agricultural implements of the day.

Twenty years ago, the inventive genius of the country was displayed in forty - three agricultural implements patented in one vear, while within ten months of the past year we have the amazing result of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven patents issued for such implements.

"Then, again, we see a sudden development of specific agricultural interests, almost incredible in amount, as, for instance, the hop crop. One State alone (Wisconsin) produced 7,000,000 lbs. during the last year, nearly doubling the crop of the previous year. The entire crop of the United States in 1860 was less than 11,000,000 lbs. The increase alone of Wisconsin last year was nearly equal to the total crop of the United States in 1850. So, again, among the fruits, as, for instance, the grape. The progress in the culture of the vine during the past year seems to have outstripped ail previous ones. We had exhibited in the hor-" ticultural and pomological department of our own fair fifty varieties of native grapes by a single exhibitor. The estimates of the value of this one interest, in number of acres planted, and in the returns of the vintage, are almost too wild for belief The Secretary of the American Pomological Society, whose means of knowing are better than those of most of us, places the value of our grape crop at a higher figure than that of France - the grape country par excellence.

"It is so, too, with various other interests. One county of our own State (Salem) furnishes the greater part of all the herds--grass seed that is found in the market, and this, be it remembered, is chiefly the yicld-from lands which have been recovered by drains and dykes. They have sold from that county in one year 90,000 bushels of this seed. What an item of encouragement to other parts of the State to proceed in the work of reclaiming their waste lands!"

The report then proceeds to speak of a visit made by a delegation from the Society on invitation to Salem and Cape May, which seems to have been not only full of interest in a scientific view, but immensely enjoyable as a pleasure trip. After which, the report concludes as follows, which is indicative of the policy of the Society as a State association.

"Before we close a report in which we can touch but casually on the various points to be brought to your notice, we have a word to say on what has been the policy of your Committee in the government of the Society.

"First and foremost, your Committee have endeavored to keep constantly in view one cardinal principle, and ceaselessly to impress the same on the minds of our stockholders and all others with whom we have had dealings as a society, that is, that the New Jersey State Agricultural Society is no county association, nor society of local interests, but is what its name imports, and what, if we are faithful to our trusts, we shall strenuously insist on keeping it, namely, a State institution, whose object and sphere is, in the language of our Constitution, to improve the condition of agriculture, horticulture, the domestic and household arts. We are" to know no one interest to the exclusion of others, but to see that each of these has its due share of our patronage and fostering care. The strongest pressure our association will be subject to will be in behalf of the horse interest. This is perfectly natural. It is the most dangerous, because the most insinuating and seductive. It is a sad history in every agricultural society where they have allowed this interest to become paramount, that the society has gone to an early decadence, dwindling down into a mere racecourse, languishing for a year or two, and then remembered only among the things that were.

"The horse is undoubtedly a noble animal, and as such is worthy our highest regard and utmost care. We can do everything in the way of encouraging improvement in breeding and in bringing into our State the finest blood of the country. We can go further than that, we can look to him as one of the attractive features in our annual exhibitions, and make him return to us in our revenues an equivalent for the care and pains bestowed upon him; but we must jealously guard against ever permitting this attractive and dangerous element so to encompass us as finally to be helplessly - and despite our own will - lost within its embrace. To some we may give offense by these words, or seem too slack in what the strong interests of the Society demand of us; but your Committee would say that nothing has exercised their minds more than this one subject, and we commend our views to the right understanding of impartial minds who are willing to give us credit, at least, for honest convictions and true intent".

The report seemed to give very general satisfaction, not only in assuring the minds of the purely agricultural members that the Society never could degenerate into a jockey club, but also in quieting the fears of some of the horse gentry that their favorite was to be tabooed.