The file is a history of the Kitsumkalum Farmers' Institute by Frank Floyd, a Terrace dairy farmer.

SUMMARY: Meeting and debates at the annual conventions of the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association, including addresses of the Ministers of Agriculture to the conventions. No other content documentation on file.;

Constitutions; minutes of BC Livestock Show and Sales Association, 1918-1919, BC Stockbreeders' Association, 1919-1927, BC Beef Cattle Growers' Association, 1929-1971, and BC Cattlemen's Association, 1971-1978; selected subject files, including minutes of associated livestock associations, ca. 1944-1963.

The series consists of B.C. Farmers’ Institutes records of several different types, including: records of Farmers’ Institute districts; records concerning the reporting of local institutes to the Registrar of Companies and the Dept. of Agriculture; correspondence of the Superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes (in the Dept. of Agriculture); and records of the Farmers' Institute Advisory Board ca. 1961-1967.

The series includes files regarding local Farmers' Institutes. These records document the function of the B.C. Registrar of Companies and subsequently the B.C. Dept. of Agriculture in their responsibility for B.C. Farmers' Institutes. The records document how each local institute registered as a society, carried out its annual reporting, and was dissolved. These files may include: a declaration of desire to form a society under the Societies Act, the certificate of incorporation as a society, constitution and by-laws, a list of first directors, the annual reports which include the institute's annual financial statement, and a memo to file regarding the local institute being struck off the corporate register and dissolved. Files may also include minutes and correspondence. A Declaration of Association includes the names, occupations and address of the local people who wished to form the association.

The annual reports include: a financial statement listing receipts and expenditures, balances, and names of auditors. It also includes the membership numbers, and names and occupations of officers and directors. Annual reports also consist of remarks, sometimes lengthy, about the nature of the local institute and its activities during the past year.

Records of Farmers’ Institute districts date from ca. 1961 through 1967 and from 1968 to 1980. These files include minutes of and resolutions from meetings and annual conventions, correspondence, and financial statements.

The series also includes miscellaneous correspondence ca. 1961-1963, in-going and out-going, from the office of the Superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes of the Dept. of Agriculture.

Where file codes exist on the files, these codes were created based on the number assigned to that institute at the declaration of association.

Annual reports and other corporate records were submitted first to the B.C. Registrar of Companies and subsequently to the B.C. Dept. of Agriculture. Prior to 1956, the Farmers’ and Women’s Institutes were administered under the Institutes Act and Societies Act, and they reported to the Registrar of Companies (the Corporate Registry). Registry files created by the Registrar of Companies documented the registration, corporate history and dissolution of all companies, societies and co-operatives that operated in British Columbia, and were dissolved between 1860 and 1993. Companies, societies and co-operatives that carried on business in British Columbia were required to register with the Registrar of Companies and regularly submit reports and other records to the registry office. For this reason, prior to 1956, Farmers’ and Women's Institute records were held by and in the provenance of the office of the Registrar of Companies. In 1956 the B.C. legislature passed a new “Farmers’ and Women’s Institutes Act” (an act initially dating from 1936). The 1956 act placed the institutes entirely under this act instead of being administered under the Institutes Act and Societies Act, and the institutes were now the responsibility of, and reported to, the Dept. of Agriculture.

Many records of the institutes initially held by the Registrar of Companies were transferred to the Dept. of Agriculture, and the Dept. of Agriculture continued to create records after 1956. Those records transferred to B.C. Archives from the Dept. of Agriculture and its successor, the Ministry of Agriculture, make up the records of GR-0505. Some Farmers’ and Women's Institute records remained with the Registrar of Companies and were transferred directly from that office to B.C. Archives. These records are located in series GR-1526 - Corporate registry files.

Container GR0505-0007 contains some files regarding the B.C. Women's Institutes, as follows:

Aberdeen Women’s Institute
Bonnington and South Slocan Women’s Institute
Carmi Women’s Institute
Christian Valley Women’s Institute
Deer Park Women’s Institute
Lasqueti Women’s Institute
Monte Lake Women’s Institute
North Fraser Lake Women’s Institute
Nukko Lake Women’s Institute
Peace Arch Women’s Institute
Pitt Meadows Women’s Institute
Tatalrose Women’s Institute
Telkwa and District Women’s Institute
Terrace Women’s Institute
West Langley Women’s Institute
Woss Lake Women’s Institute

Correspondence arranged in subject files, mainly 1962-1964.

Constitution and by-laws; minutes and resolutions of meetings and BCFA conventions; correspondence pertaining to BCFA organization, agricultural matters, the Pacific National Exhibition, freight rates, Fraser Valley floods, and taxes; papers and correspondence concerning expropriation; briefs submitted by individuals and organizations to the Royal Commission on Expropriation (1961); BCF.A. briefs and submissions to federal and provincial governments; reports and convention material of some farm product specialty organizations.

The British Columbia Federation of Agriculture (BCFA) was established in 1936 as the British Columbia Chamber of Agriculture, assuming its present name in 1941. The federation represented local agricultural associations at a provincial level and liaised with public and national organizations on agricultural matters.

The records include the British Columbia Federation of Agriculture's constitution and by-laws, minutes and resolutions, correspondence, and briefs and submissions to the Royal Commission on Expropriation Laws and Procedures (the Clyne Commission). Subjects include the Pacific National Exhibition, freight rates, the Fraser Valley floods, and the expropriation of farmland.

Related records may be found in MS-1545 and MS-0669.

RECORDED: Kelowna (B.C.), 1964-01-21 to 23 SUMMARY: Proceedings of the 1964 convention of the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association, Kelowna, B.C., January 21-23, 1964.;

Minutes of executive meetings, 1929-1971; convention packages, containing programmes, minutes, resolutions lists, etc., and sometimes verbatim records, 1939-1965; minutes, Southern, Central and Northern District Councils, 1960-1963; various drafts, agreements, announcements, circulars, speeches; growers lists, 1975.

Executive committee minutes, 1913-1915; membership book, 1910-1911; correspondence, 1913-1921; papers relating to annual meetings 1913-1914; account books, receipts and financial statements, 1911-1922; correspondence of John Ridge Terry, British Columbia Chief Poultry Instructor, relating to poultry breeding stations, 1913.

Cash books, 1945-1967; minute books of regular, annual, directors, and special meetings, 1922-1961.

Correspondence outward, 1959-1967 (2 vols.) and membership lists, 1953-1970 (2 vols.).

The Cowichan, Saltspring and Chemainus Agricultural Society was established in 1868. By 1910, the Society was known as the Cowichan Agricultural Society. It became the Cowichan Agricultural Society and Farmers' Institute before it disbanded in 1956.

Records include: minutes, 1868-1875, 1909-1960; account books; correspondence,1927-1959; and papers relating to property and exhibitions.

By-laws.

Presented by the Secretary, Criss Creek Livestock Association, 1978.

Diaries of H.E. Church, 1890-1933; account book and personal papers of R.H. Church, 1927-1969; business papers re the Church ranch; papers of the Big Creek Stock Breeders Association, 1923-1969. H.E. Church emigrated from England to Canada in 1886. He homesteaded on Sheep Creek in Southern Alberta from 1887 to 1897, farmed at Comox, B.C. from 1897 to 1902, and in 1903 moved to Big Creek, B.C.

Minute books, 1936-1938, 1940-1970 (2 vols.); cash books, 1933-1952, 1938-1942; 1953-1964 (3 vols.); ledger, 1935-1938; membership book, 1948.

Minute books, 1919-1969; membership books, 1926-1939; cash books, journals and ledgers, 1924-1945; correspondence, 1946-1948, 1959-1971; minutes, District B convention, 1966-1969, 1972-1973; minutes, Advisory Board for Farmers' Institutes, 1966-1969; "History of the Kitsumkalum Farmers' Institute, 1911-1971".

Minute books 1944-1948, 1954-1973 (3 vols.).

Series consists of by-laws, 1930; minute book, 1938-1969; cash book, 1949-1961.

Minute book, 1942-1945 and 1953-1962 (1 volume).

Minute book.

Presented by Ashton Ross-Smith, North Pender Island, 1976.

Minute book, 1929-1975; cash book, 1931-1950.

Minute books, 1925-1938, 1939-1947, 1948-1964; membership book, 1928-1971.

Presented by W.E. Bowd, Telkwa, 1988.

The file consists of a copy of the History of the Pitt Meadows Farmers' Institute by William Mitchell, Secretary of the Institute.

Minutes, 1897-1940; account books, 1911-1933.

Letter from Thomas S. Grieve, on the occasion of his being made an honorary member of the institute, in which he describes some of the early activities ofthe institute.

Minute book, 1961-1976, and cash book, 1961-1976.

Ledgers, 1885-1940; daily records of sales, 1912-1919, and 1947-1955; records including lists of goods supplied in account with Dept. of Indian Affairs, 1954-1956; treasurer's book, Ebenezer Methodist Church (Nanaimo), 1882-1920; minute books, Nanaimo and Cedar Farmers' Institute, 1916-1923.

Purchased from William Hoffer, Bookseller, Vancouver, 1977.

Finding aid: volume list.

Minute book.

Minute book, June 7, 1947 to February 15, 1975.

Minute book.