PROCEEDINGS AT BOARD MEETINGS. 9 



horses, £703 ; sheep, £402 ; wool, £15 ; swine, £93 ; poultry, £138 ; dairy produce, 

 £94 ; imi^lemeiits, £80 ; Tweeddale Gold Medal, £20 ; two silver cups, £50 ; silver 

 medals to breeders of best aged bulls and best stallion, £4, 16s. ; e.xtra stock, £40 — in 

 all, £2586, 16s., or £986 above what was offered at the Perth Show in 1871. | | 



The report was approved of, and the Secretary was instructed to submit the premium 

 list and regulations to a meeting of members to be held in the Royal George Hotel, 

 Perth, on Friday the 13th current, at one o'clock. 



Proposed Show at Kelso in 1880. — The list of classes for the proposed Show at Kelso 

 in 1880, as suggested by the Committee on General Shows, was submitted and approved 

 of by the Board ; and it was arranged that the Secretary should lay the list before a 

 meeting of membei's connected with the district, to be held in the Cross Keys Inn, 

 Kelso, on Friday the 20th current, at one o'clock. 



A letter was submitted from Mr Usher, Stodrig, sending the following communica- 

 tion : — " Memorial to the Directors of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland from the Committee of the Border Union Agricultural Society. — A meeting of 

 said Committee was held on Friday, 29th November, in consequence of a paragi-aph 

 having appeared in the newspapers expressing a doubt of the General Show of the 

 Highland Society being held at Kelso in 1880, and also of Kelso being retained on the 

 list of towns where such meetings shall be held in future years. The meeting was all 

 but unanimous in opinion that such a result would be a great loss and discouragement to 

 the district, and would also have the effect of diminishing the list of members of the 

 Highland Society within its limits. It was contended that the former meetings at 

 Kelso have been highly successful, that it is the centre of an important agi'icultural 

 district, and that its proximity to the English Border rendered it a most eligible situa- 

 tion. Your memorialists humbly beg the Directors to consider their wishes, and give 

 effect to them, if practicable, by Hxing their Annual Show to take place at Kelso in 

 1880, as proposed. The Committee further resolved to call a general meeting of the 

 Border Union Society to express their opiniovi on the subject, if necessary, before the 

 General Meeting of the Highland Society in Januarj'.— (Signed) For John Ord, Convener 

 of the Committee, John Usher, Secy. Border Union Agricultural Society.— Kelso, 3d 

 December 1878.^' 



The Secretary was instructed to inform Mr Usher that the Directors had resolved to 

 recommend to the next General ]\Ieeting to hold the Show at Kelso in 1880, as stated 

 above. 



With reference to the preceding resolution, and the discussion which took place at 

 the meeting of the Board on the 6th of November in regard to the proposal that Kelso 

 and Inverue.ss should be deleted from the list of towns at which Shows are held, Mr 

 Martin, yr. of Auchendennan, gave notice of the following motion, to be brought 

 forward at the General Meeting cm the 15th'of January next: — " That a Comnuttee of 

 members be appointed to consider the whole question of the circuit of the Society's 

 Annual Shows, and to rejiort to the General Meeting in Jrme ; also, that pending 

 receipt of this report the Society should delay until the June meeting decision as to 

 place at which the Show of 1880 is to be held." 



District Competitions.— The reports by the Committee on District Shows and 

 Cottage Competitions, detailing the awards at the competitions held during 1878, and 

 suggesting the districts for next year, were submitted and approved of. 



Report on Trial of Implements. — The grain drill, manure sower, and turnip 

 raisers selected at the Dumfries Show were tried on the 19th of November on the farm 

 of Niddrie Mains, by the kind permission of Mr Thomas Mylne, one of the Directors 

 of the Society. "The American grain drill, exhibited and invented by J. G. Rollins and 

 Co., London, was tried first. It is said to be constructed to sow all kinds of grain, 

 as well as beans and peas. It claims to have an advantage over other machines of its 

 kind in the manner in which the quantity of seed to be sown is regulated. This is 

 done by a number of change wheels, graduated to sow a stated quantity, bolted 

 together in a cone. The change is made by sliding a wheel into another wheel on the 

 cone to sow the desired quantity. It has attachments for sowing grass seed and 

 artificial manures at the same time the grain is sown, or each separately, and the force 

 feed distributor delivers the grass evenly and regularly in any position in which it is 

 placed. There is also an indicator on the machine to show the number of acres sown 

 by it. After a lengthened and exhaustive trial with barley, grass seed, and artificial 

 manure, the Committee are of opinion that it is, with some imjirovement, a useful 

 machine, easy of draft, and well adapted for the purpose ; and the Committee 

 recommend the Directors to award the medium gold medal of the Society to the 

 inventors, more particularly for the ingenuity of the force feed for the grain, and the 

 conical arrangement for the regulation of the supply. 



The next machine tried was the manure sower invented by Messrs Shaw and 

 Williamson, of Edinburgh and WLshaw, and exhibited by James M'Dowall, Jamaica 

 Street, Glasgow, sole maker. This machine is constructed to distribute either soot or 

 artiiicial manures in broadcast or in drill. The difficulty with manure distributors 



