11 PKELIMINAKY NOTICE. 



Society for many years, the constituency is still being aug- 

 mented, and the roll now contains the names of above 4,200 

 members. 



FINANCE. 



The accounts submitted to the last General Meeting ex- 

 hibit at the close of the financial year on 30th November, 

 1865, assets amounting to £49,366, being an increase of £2,374 

 on the amount reported in the preliminary notice nublished in 

 1863. 



GENERAL SHOWS. 



The public continues to manifest unabated interest in these 

 meetings. Since the date of the last notice, the Society has 

 appeared at Kelso, Stirling, and Inverness. No show had been 

 held at Kelso since 1832, Berwick having long been regarded as 

 the central point for the south-eastern counties. The Directors, 

 in deference to a local feeling in favour of Kelso, were induced 

 to hold the meeting for 1863 there, and had no cause to 

 regret having done so ; for, notwithstanding the deficiency of 

 accommodation in the town, and the inconvenience to which 

 visitors were consequently subjected, the show was highly 

 successful, and entailed but a trifling loss on the Society's funds. 



Although one meeting, at a period so early as 1833, was 

 held at Stirling, it may be regarded as an entirely new district, 

 the counties of Stirling and Dumbarton having since that 

 time been associated with Glasgow. After the meeting 

 at Perth in 1861, a desire was expressed by many gentle- 

 men connected with Stirlingshire that an intermediate 

 district between Perth and Glasgow should be formed, with 

 Stirling as the place of meeting, and the advantages of its 

 admirable railway facilities and excellent hotel accommodation 

 were urged ; and, eventually, a guarantee of £1000 was offered, 

 and a district was arranged, comprising the counties of Stirl- 

 ing, Dumbarcon, and Clackmannan, and the western district of 

 Perthshire. The result was a show in 1864, so successful as to 

 warrant the Directors in regarding Stirling in future as one of 

 the fixed points for the Society's meetings. 



The Show at Inverness last year possessed all the elements 

 of a successful meeting, but in a financial point of view it w 7 as 

 unsatisfactory- At Stirling, the Society was exposed to no loss, 

 and at Kelso the defalcation was trifling, while at Inverness it 

 exceeded £400. To a certain extent this was anticipated, many 

 circumstances occurring which make Inverness unavoidably the 

 most expensive locality visited by the Society, and, in addition 

 to these, the weather on the last occasion proved most unpro- 



