The Council have already reason to believe that the attention which this Prize will call to the whole economy of manuring, and to the agricultural as well as sanitary question of the manurial resources of the kingdom, will lead to new and important results.

The Council, after full deliberation upon the following amended Conditions, proposed to them by their Veterinary Committee, and which have been accepted by the College, decided last month to renew the grant of 2007. for the current year to the Royal Veterinary College :

1. That Members of the Society shall have the privilege of sending cattle, sheep, and pigs to the Royal Veterinary College on the same termsas if they were Members of the College.

2. That the College shall investigate particular classes of diseases or subjects as may from time to time be directed by the Council.

3. That, in addition to the increased number of Lectures given by Professor Simonds, the Lecturer on Cattle Pathology, to the Pupils in the College, he shall also deliver Lectures in the Council Room before the Members of the Society.

4. That the College shall supply a detailed Report of the cases of cattle, sheep, and pigs treated in the Royal Veterinary College.

The Council have had their attention called by His Royal Highness Prince Albert to the process of inoculation so extensively carried on at the present time in Prussia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with a view to modify the severity of the symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia in cattle. In consequence of the information furnished by His Royal Highness to the Council, they authorised Professor Simonds, as the Veterinary Inspector of the Society, to proceed to Belgium, in August last, for the purpose of making himself personally acquainted with the facts connected with the conditions and results of the employment of this process. The Report which Professor Simonds has made to the Council on this visit of inspection will appear in the next part of the Society's Journal, along with a second Report on the occurrence of pleuro-pneumonia in the extensive herd of dairy cows belonging to Mr. Paget, of Ruddington Grange, near Nottingham, and which that gentleman has with great liberality

placed at the disposal of the Society for any experiments the Council may direct to be made on them. Professor Simonds

has accordingly selected a certain number of animals for the purpose of experiment at Ruddington, and a further number to be brought up to the Royal Veterinary College in London for experiment under his own immediate superintendence. The Council have expressed to Mr. Paget their warmest thanks for the invaluable opportunity he has thus afforded to the Society of having direct investigations most satisfactorily made on the nature and cure of this fatal malady. The Council have also been favoured by Lord Stanley, H.M. Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, Sir Emerson Tennent, Secretary to the Board of Trade, and Dr. Willems, of Hasselt, in Belgium, with communications on this subject.

The Country Meeting of the Society at Lewes in July last was in every respect satisfactory, excepting in the number of visitors, which, although amounting to 18,000 in the Show-yard, and 500 at the Pavilion dinner, was only one-half of the usual number. This comparatively deficient attendance, however, was owing to peculiar circumstances, over which the Society had no control; namely, a remote locality, unusually oppressive heat, and a general election going on throughout the country at the very time of the Meeting. The Reports of the Senior Stewards of Live Stock and Implements respectively at that Meeting will appear in the Society's Journal. The thanks of the Society were voted at the time to the Authorities of the Borough, to the Railway Companies, and to Professor Simonds, who delivered before the Members an interesting lecture on Parasitical Insects producing internal and external disease in the live stock of the farmer.

The Council have decided that the Gloucester Meeting for the South Wales district shall be held in that city in the week commencing Monday, the 11th of July. They have decided on the Prizes to be offered for Live Stock, and for the Prizes and Conditions of Implements for that occasion; deferring until after

Christmas the final arrangements for the Poultry Prizes. They have also decided on the Prizes to be offered for the Essays and Reports of next year. They have agreed to the arrangements for preparing the land for the trial of Implements, and have accepted the offer of the Contractor of Works to undertake their execution at the same rate of charge as in former years. They have received from the Professors at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester the offer of co-operation in any way by which their services may be thought, by the Council, best to promote the objects of the Society at the Gloucester Meeting.

In order to consider the most effectual means of obviating the over-feeding of live stock for breeding purposes exhibited at the Country Meetings of the Society, the Earl of Ducie, as its late President, undertook, after the Lewes Meeting, the task of entering into communication with the greater number of those gentlemen who had acted as Judges at the former Country Meetings of the Society; and the great majority of their opinions being in favour of decisive measures to put a stop to an evil so generally complained of, a Committee was appointed, who have made the following recommendations, which have been since adopted by the Council:

1. To appoint three Juries of Condition for the three divisions of (1) Cattle, (2) Sheep, (3) Horses and Pigs; each Jury to be drawn by lot by the Steward of each division from the whole of the Judges comprised in it, and to consist of 9 Judges and 1 Steward; the Steward himself not to vote, but to take the decision in each case by a show of hands; the majority of votes to decide.

2. The following notice to be printed in red ink at the foot of each Certificate of entry, namely, "All animals sent for exhibition which shall in the opinion of the Jury be in an over-fed condition will be disqualified by the Jury before inspection by the Judges ;" and a placard to be placed over the standing of every animal that shall be so disqualified, stating the reason of such disqualification.

3. The age of Bulls in the two classes of each division of cattle not to exceed four years and two years respectively on the 1st of July in the year of show for which they are entered.

4. No Bull in Class I. of each division of cattle to be eligible for a Prize unless a Certificate is produced of his having served not less than three

different cows within the three months preceding the 1st of June in the year of the show.

5. No alteration to be made in the limit of age for Cows, but that every Cow in-milk and not in-calf must be certified to have had a live calf within the twelve months preceding the date of the show.

6. No Heifer entered as in-calf to be eligible unless certified to have been bulled before the 1st of March in the year of show, and not to have been again in bulling subsequently to that date; nor her owner afterwards to receive the Prize, unless on the production of a further Certificate that she has produced a live calf before the 1st of February ensuing.

7. No Cattle or Sheep to have been fed with milk subsequently to the 1st of January in the year of the show.

8. No Boar or Sow to be shown that cannot walk on account of overfatness.

The District for the Country Meeting in 1856 has been deter mined to consist of the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford, and Essex.

The Council have the continued satisfaction of referring to the successful manner in which the practical operations of agriculture are directed by improved principles gradually adapted to each particular case by an extended knowledge of conditions; and of witnessing the same spirit of improvement that has so long sustained and encouraged the Society in the prosecution of its objects, now animating other agricultural communities in every part of the civilized world, and leading them to find their mutual advantage in friendly communication and the interchange of scientific and practical results.

By order of the Council,

JAMES HUDSON,
Secretary.

1st}

6

Payments on account of Country Meetings
Transfers of Subscriptions

Sundry items of Petty Cash

£6137 13 3