MISSISSIPPI.

DIGEST OF IMMIGRATION AND ALIEN LAWS.

Act of 1906 (an act creating a department of agriculture and immigration).—An act of 1906 created a department of agriculture and immigration under the supervision of a commissioner of agriculture, statistics, and immigration. The commissioner must have a scientific knowledge of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, statistics, and general industries. He shall be elected by the people for four years. The commissioner shall give bond for $5,000 and shall receive an annual salary of $2,400. He may appoint an assistant at a salary of $1,200 a year.

It shall be the duty of the commissioner to encourage the development of agricultural industries, to inspire the organization of local, county, and state agricultural associations; to collect and distribute data beneficial to agricultural industries; to investigate causes of diseases in all products of the State; to devise methods of destroying injurious insects; to determine varieties of grasses most profitable and least adapted to different sections of the State; to secure data about raising stock and poultry and culture of fish and bees; to investigate advantages of drainage, irrigation, and subsoiling for the State; to study wool and silk culture; and to report on ways of extending markets for cotton and its products. He shall collect statistics of agricultural products with aid of county tax assessors. He shall appoint a person in each county to cooperate. He shall collect specimens of woods, mineral and other products, with specific data for public inspection. He shall prepare a complete handbook of information relating to all products, resources, industries, and advantages of the State for the intelligence of investors or immigrants. He shall submit an annual report to the governor.

All heads of state institutions or departments of the state government shall assist the commissioner in securing accurate information. The commissioner may enter manufacturing plants chartered by the State and require data of public interest to be supplied. He may accept free transportation on common carriers.

Mississippi Code 1906.-Officers of vessels bringing to the State any infant, lunatic, vagrant, or person maimed, aged, or infirm who is likely to become a public charge shall give bond to indemnify the county against any expense or be fined $200 for each person imported. And whenever vessels land alien passengers at any port the commanding officers shall file a list of their names and give bond to indemnify the county against any expense incurred in behalf of any person on such list, and in default may be indicted, convicted, and fined $100 for each person.

ACT OF 1906.

[Laws of Mississippi, 1906, ch. 102, S. B. No. 23, p. 83.]

AN ACT Creating a department of agriculture and immigration.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Mississippi, That a department of agriculture and immigration is created and established, under the management and control of a public officer to be known as commissioner of agriculture, statistics, and immigration, who shall have competent knowledge of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, statistics, and general industries, must be an experienced and practical agriculturist, and shall be elected by the people at the time and in the manner that other state officers are elected.

SEC. 2. The term of office of the commissioner of agriculture, statistics, and immigration shall be four years, beginning on January 1, 1908; and any vacancy occurring shall be filled by appointment by the governor, as provided by law.

SEC. 3. Immediately after the approval of this act the governor shall appoint a commissioner of agriculture, statistics, and immigration who shall hold office until January 1, 1908, or until his successor is elected and qualified.

SEC. 4. The commissioner, before entering upon the duties of the office, must take and subscribe the oath of office prescribed by the constitution; and must enter into bond, payable to the State of Mississippi, in the sum of five thousand dollars with a guaranty company, the expense of such bond being paid by the State. The bond must be approved by the attorney-general, and when approved shall, together with the oath of office, be filed in the office of the secretary of state.

SEC. 5. The salary of the commissioner shall be two thousand four hundred dollars annually, payable monthly.

SEC. 6. The commissioner must keep his office in the city of Jackson. SEC. 7. The commissioner must appoint a clerk who must take the oath of office to discharge faithfully all the duties which are, or may be, required of him by law. He shall hold office during the term of the commissioner by whom he is appointed, and until the appointment and qualification of his successor, unless sooner removed. SEC. 8. The clerk must discharge such duties as may be prescribed by the commissioner, and his annual salary shall not exceed one thousand two hundred dollars, payable monthly on certificate of the commissioner. The expenses necessarily incurred by him in traveling on business of the department, under direction of the commissioner, must be paid for and charged against the department.

SEC. 9. The following are the duties of the commissioner:

1. He shall encourage the proper development of agriculture, horticulture, and kindred industries.

2. He shall encourage the organization of neighborhood and county agricultural clubs and associations, and out of these the organization of the State Agricultural Association.

3. He shall collect and publish statistics and such other information regarding such industries of this State and of other States as

may be of benefit in developing the agricultural resources of the State. To this end he shall put himself in connection and cooperate with the agricultural departments of other States, and with the Commissioner of Agriculture of the United States, and shall provide for the proper and careful distribution of all documents and information coming into his possession on account of the department that may be of interest and benefit to the people of the State.

4. He shall cause to be investigated the diseases of grain, cotton, fruit, and other crops grown in this State, and also remedies for such diseases, and also the habits and propagation of the various insects that are injurious to the crops of the State and the proper mode of their destruction.

5. He shall investigate the subject of grasses and report upon their value and the cultivation of the varieties best adapted to the different sections of the State.

6. He shall inquire into the subjects connected with dairying, that he may deem of interest to the people of the State, and in this connection the raising of stock and poultry, the obtaining of such as are of most value, and the breeding and propagation of the same; and shall encourage raising of fish and the culture of bees.

7. He shall investigate the subjects of subsoiling, drainage, etc., and the best mode of effecting each, and of irrigation and what portions of the State can be best benefited thereby.

8. He shall investigate and report upon the culture of wool and the utility and profit of sheep raising; also the culture of silk and its manufacture and preparation for market.

8a. No provision of this act shall be construed to in any way conflict with the work and scope of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Experiment Station. It is the purpose that this department shall cooperate with said college and experiment station in the dissemination and publicity of such useful information as may come into the possession of said departments.

9. He shall investigate and report on the question of broadening the market and demand for cotton and cotton goods in the United States and foreign countries.

10. He shall cause a proper collection of agricultural statistics to be made annually, and to this end shall furnish blank forms to the tax assessor of each county, and it is made the special duty of the tax assessor to whom said blanks are furnished to report to the bureau a list of all public or private ginners in his county, with their post-offices, upon the demand of the commissioner. That it shall be the duty of the commissioner to furnish to such ginner a form or forms of report to be made to the bureau at such time as the commissioner may direct. A failure to make such reports on the part of the ginner or assessor as required by said commissioner shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, punished as provided by law. It shall be the duty of the members of the board of supervisors and the county tax assessor of each county in this State to make such reports as may be required by this bureau touching the matter within the scope of this bill; and failure of any supervisor or tax assessor to make such report when required shall be deemed a misdemeanor and shall be punished as provided by law.

11. He shall appoint county correspondents, who shall report to him from time to time as may be desired.

12. He shall collect specimens of wood suitable for manufacture and other purposes, and specimens of agricultural, mineral, phosphate, and marl deposits of the State; cause correct analysis of such as may be deemed expedient to be made, and recorded in a substantial book to be kept for this purpose.

13. He shall also, as soon as practicable, prepare a convenient hand book, with necessary illustrated maps, which shall contain all necessary information as to the mines, mineral, forest, soil, and other products, climate, water, water power for the establishing of factories, land, flowers, fisheries, mountains, streams, and all other statistics as are best adapted to the giving of proper information and the attraction of advantages which the State affords to immigrants, and shall make illustrated expositions thereof whenever practicable at international and State expositions.

14. He shall make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry into effect provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 10. The commissioner shall make and submit to the governor, on or before the 10th day of January each year, a report showing all expenditures of the bureau for the preceding year, and shall make a full and comprehensive report of the scope of the work and expenditures of the bureau to each session of the legislature within ten days of the convening thereof.

SEC. 11. In order to facilitate the collection and collation of the accurate information of the resources of the State along all lines, the head of the several departments of the State government and of the State institutions are hereby required to furnish accurately such information as may be at their command to the commissioner when called upon for same; and the commissioner is hereby empowered to enter manufacturing establishments chartered by the State in prosecution of this work, and that the corporations operating the same shall furnish such information as may not be injurious to their business, when requested to furnish same by the commissioner. The commissioner and his clerks shall have the right to accept and use free transportation over steamship, steamboat, and railway lines.

SEC. 12. That this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, April 14, 1906.

EXTRACTS FROM MISSISSIPPI CODE, 1906.

[Mississippi Code of 1906, p. 1011.]

3587 (3164). Vessels bringing pauper immigrants, children, etc.-If any person commanding a ship, vessel, steamboat, or other water craft, shall import into this State, or bring to the shores or within the limits thereof any infant, lunatic, maimed, aged, or infirm person, or vagrant who is likely to become chargeable on the county, on the requisition of the supervisor of the district or the mayor of any city, town, or village, the captain, master, or commander of such ship, vessel, steamboat, or other water craft shall enter into bond, with sufficient sureties, payable to the county, conditioned to in

demnify such county against all charges that may be incurred in the support and care of such person; and any captain, master, or commander failing or refusing to give the bond required shall forfeit and pay to the county the sum of two hundred dollars for each infant, lunatic, maimed, aged, or infirm person, or vagrant so brought into the State, to be recovered by action.

3588 (3165). Master of vessel landing alien passengers.-When any ship, vessel, or steamboat shall arrive at any port or harbor with alien passengers on board who are to be landed or left, and who may become a charge as paupers, the master or commanding officer of the vessel shall, before such passengers or any of them leave the ship, vessel, or steamboat, deposit with the supervisor of the district where the passengers are to be landed or left a list of their names, and shall forthwith enter into bond, with sufficient sureties, payable to the county, in a sufficient penalty, with condition to indemnify the county from all expenses which may arise from supporting or maintaining such aliens; and in default of such bond the captain, master, or commander may be committed by any justice of the peace or mayor of any city, town, or village until the bond be executed; and, moreover, the captain, master, or commander shall be liable to be indicted, and on conviction shall be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars for each person landed in violation of this section; but the board of supervisors on investigation of the matter may dispense with the bond.