§ 1409. Agricultural and horticultural corporations.

(a) Definition.

An agricultural or horticultural corporation or society is a
corporation formed under or by a general or special law for promoting
agriculture, horticulture and the mechanic arts.

(b) Type of corporation. An agricultural or horticultural corporation
is a non-charitable corporation under this chapter, except that any such
corporation which has received moneys from the state or has acted as
agent for the state under paragraph (c) of this section, or has acquired
or does acquire real property by condemnation is or becomes a charitable
corporation under this chapter.

(c) Condemnation.

In case any agricultural or horticultural corporation or any other
agricultural society which has received moneys from the state for
premiums paid for improving the breed of cattle, sheep and horses, or
has acted as agent for the state in disbursing moneys for such purpose
can not acquire real property needed for its corporate purposes upon
satisfactory terms, it may acquire such real property by condemnation.
Any real property acquired by condemnation, or otherwise, shall not be
subject to condemnation by any other private corporation except a
railroad corporation.

(d) Report of corporation receiving aid; disposition of property.

Any county agricultural corporation receiving after May tenth,
nineteen hundred and twenty, money from any county shall, through its
secretary, make annually to the board of supervisors a detailed
statement with vouchers showing the disbursement during the year of all
moneys so received. If such a corporation shall cease to exist, or
without satisfactory reason shall fail or neglect to hold its annual
exhibitions or fairs for a period of two years, the board of supervisors
on notice to the corporation may petition the supreme court of the
judicial district or the county court of the county to declare a
forfeiture to the county of the real and personal property of the
corporation in whole or in part or to confer on the county a lien upon
such property, whereupon such court may make a decree determining the
legal or equitable rights of the county in such property subject to the
rights of creditors of the corporation.

(e) Restrictions on the formation of corporations.

There shall be but one county corporation in a county, and but one
town corporation in a town, except that a second corporation may be
formed if it is to be the surviving corporation under a plan of merger
with the existing corporation, in which event, the certificate of
incorporation of such second corporation shall have endorsed thereon or
annexed thereto the approval of a justice of the supreme court of the
judicial district in which the office of such corporation is to be
located. Ten days written notice of the application for such approval,
accompanied by a copy of the proposed certificate, shall be given to the
attorney general. Whenever a new county shall be or shall have been
erected out of a part of an existing county in which a county
corporation existed at the time of the erection of such new county, the
existing corporation may at its option be continued as the county
corporation of both counties. The determination of an existing
corporation to be continued as a county corporation for both counties
shall be evidenced by a certificate thereof, signed and acknowledged by
a majority of the directors, and filed in the office of the secretary of
state and in the office of the clerk of each of such counties. A town
corporation may be formed for several towns, but the formation of such
corporation shall not prevent the formation of a separate town
corporation for any such town.

(f) Annual fairs and premiums.

Every agricultural or horticultural corporation, the American
institute in the city of New York, and the New York state agricultural
society, shall hold annual fairs and exhibitions, and distribute
premiums. Such corporations and societies shall regulate and award
premiums on such articles, productions and improvements as they deem
best calculated to promote the agricultural, horticultural, mechanic and
domestic arts of the state, having special reference to the net profits
which accrue or are likely to accrue from the mode of raising crops, or
stock, or fabricating the articles exhibited, so that the award be made
to the most economical or profitable mode of production. A county or
town corporation, by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting
at a regular meeting or at a special meeting, duly called for that
purpose, may fix the place where the annual fair and exhibition of the
corporation shall be held.

(g) Regulation of shows on exhibition grounds.

Any agricultural or horticultural corporation, or the executive
committee of such board, may regulate or prevent all kinds of
theatrical, or circus, exhibitions and shows, huckstering and traffic in
fruits, goods, wares and merchandise, of whatever description, and shall
prevent all kinds of mountebank exhibitions or shows for gain on the
fair days on such fair grounds, and also within a distance of two
hundred yards of the fair grounds of the corporation, if it shall
determine that they obstruct or interfere with the free and
uninterrupted use of the highways around and approaching such fair
grounds.

(h) Capital stock.

An agricultural or horticultural corporation may have capital stock
aggregating not less than five thousand dollars, divided into shares of
not less than ten dollars each, and may issue such certificates at not
less than the par value thereof to raise money for its corporate
purposes, if provision therefor is made in its certificate of
incorporation or in a certificate filed pursuant to section 803
(Certificate of amendment; contents). An agricultural or horticultural
corporation, which has issued or shall hereafter issue capital stock,
entitling its shareholders to dividends from the profits of the
corporation, shall be subject to the business corporation law and not to
the provisions of this chapter in conflict therewith.

(i) Annual report.

On or before December fifteenth in each year, the directors of every
agricultural or horticultural corporation shall make a verified report
to the commissioner of agriculture and markets of the transactions of
the corporation for the preceding twelve months giving full details of
the receipts and expenditures thereof, with a list of premiums awarded
and to whom and for what awarded.

(j) Membership in state society.

The presidents of the county agricultural corporations, or delegates
to be chosen by such corporations annually, shall be ex officio members
of the New York state agricultural society.

(k) Exhibitions and entertainments on fair grounds to be exempt from
license.

The provisions of any special or local law or municipal ordinance,
requiring the payment of a license fee for exhibitions or entertainments
or requiring that an approval be obtained from any local government
except an approval required to protect the safety, health and well-being
of persons, shall not apply to any exhibition or entertainment held on
the grounds of a town or county corporation whether or not the
corporation derives a pecuniary profit from such exhibition or
entertainment by the lease of its grounds for such purpose and the
provisions of any special or local law or municipal ordinance shall not
be construed or applied to unreasonably prohibit or restrict any
agricultural or horticultural corporation receiving reimbursement
pursuant to article twenty-four of the agriculture and markets law from
the construction, improvement, renovation, relocation or demolition of
all or any of such agricultural or horticultural corporation grounds,
buildings and facilities.