PRELIMINARY NOTICE. Vll 



April, 1865. — George Young, Haddington ; James Mitchell, 

 Kelso ; Thomas Sharp, Hamilton ; John Mitchell, Aberdeen ; 

 David Young, Hamilton ; James G. Paton, Manchester; Thomas 

 Kelburn, Skelton, Yorkshire; Andrew Mann, Lambton, Durham; 

 K. W. Sloan, Kirkcudbright; Edward Perry, Leicestershire; 

 Thos. Park, Edinburgh; Robert Moore, London ; W. A. Smith, 

 Dublin ; William Dent, Westmoreland ; W. G. Barker, Skelton, 

 Yorkshire; A. Butters, Edinburgh ; John Hammond, Newton- 

 Stewart; Thomas M'Crorie, Monkton, Ayrshire; Alexander 

 Lockhart, Glasgow ; James Keith, Old Deer; Frederick Wall, 

 Manchester. 



MUSEUM. 



When Government consented to establish in Edinburgh a 

 Museum of Science and Art for Scotland, the Society was in- 

 duced to transfer to that Institution its collection of Models of 

 Agricultural Implements and Machinery ; and the Museum has 

 since been restricted to illustrations and examples of roots, seeds, 

 straws, woods, and other articles of produce. The Museum of 

 Science and Art being now completed, its great scope supersedes 

 the necessity of maintaining many pre-existing Collections re- 

 stricted to special departments, and it is desirable to direct 

 public interest to it as far as possible. In this view the Museum 

 has been entirely made over to and accepted by Government, 

 and now forms a part of a public Institution. This has enabled 

 the Directors to effect an economical and very convenient re^ 

 arrangement. The house in Albyn Place has been sold, and the 

 whole offices of the Society will be concentrated in George IV. 

 Bridge. 



OFFICE OF SECRETARY. 



The principal event which has occurred during the past year 

 in the internal management of the Society has been the resigna- 

 tion of Mr Hall Maxwell, who for twenty years has discharged 

 the duties of secretary. The high sense which the Society 

 entertains of the value of that gentleman's services cannot be 

 better illustrated than by transferring to these pages the following 

 extract from the minutes of the Directors, dat?d 20th September, 

 1865:— 



"The Directors cannot accept Mr. Hall Maxwell's resignation 

 without recording in their minutes the deep sense which they, in 

 common with the members of the Society at large, entertain of the 

 zeal, energy, and ability with which that gentleman has for twenty 

 years discharged the duties of secretary. The progress which the 

 Society has made, both financially and numerically, since Mr. 

 Maxwell's appointment, and the increasing success which has 

 attended the Society's annual shows under his administration, afford 

 the best possible proofs of the efficient manner in which the office of 

 secretary has been filled. None but those, however, who have been 



