PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 3 



Directors had unanimously appointed as Secretary Mr Fletcher Norton 

 Menzies, a gentleman who, besides the knowledge the Directors had of his 

 qualifications for the office, had this recommendation, that on the occasion of 

 Mr Macduff's election, Mr Menzies stood second on the list of candidates, and 

 received on that occasion very influential and important support. The 

 Directors confidently recommend him to the Society as one who could most 

 efficiently and ably discharge the duties of the office. 



New Members. 



The Secretary (Mr Menzies) said they had an unusually small number of 

 new members to present on this occasion, arising from the fact that there 

 would be no show this year. Seven gentlemen were then balloted for and 

 admitted. 



Transactions of the Society. 



Mr Irvine of Drum reported that, in accordance with the intimations 

 made by him at former general meetings, the Transactions of the Society had 

 now been published separately from the Journal of Agriculture, and are sent 

 to members without charge. He had now the pleasure of laying the new 

 number on the table. As the number was the first of a new series — the 

 fourth — the Directors had in the preliminary notice briefly referred to the 

 origin of the Transactions, and to the periods at which the various series had 

 appeared. (See notice prefixed to the first volume.) The Directors had re- 

 solved that a general index to the last or third series of the Transactions 

 should be immediately commenced, with the view of afterwards extending it 

 to the second and first. This was now engaging the attention of the Secretary, 

 and the index would in due time be published. The papers for the next number 

 were now under consideration, and the Directors hoped it would appear about 

 the end of February. As members were aware, two numbers, or the Transac- 

 tions for two years, formed one volume. In connection with this subject, he 

 might also report that the gold medal for a report of experiments on rye grass 

 and clover with different top-dressings, and the silver medal for a report of 

 experiments on turnips, had been awarded. Both prizes had been gained by 

 the same gentleman — Mr Russell Swanwick, Whittington, Chesterfield, who, 

 though dating from the Boyal Agricultural College, Gloucestershire, was a 

 member of the Highland Society, and conducted his experiments on the farm 

 of Fenton Barns, East Lothian. 



Mr Harvey, Whittingham Mains, said that a few years ago he got placed 

 on the premium list, to be competed for in 1864-65, comparative experiments 

 with four different kinds of wheat. He was appointed one of the judges, and 

 convener of them. The premiums were competed for by two gentlemen in 

 East Lothian and one in Ayrshire, and he had gone down to Ayrshire two 

 different years to report. He found that no notice had yet been taken in the 

 Transactions of these experiments, although they had all been reported on 

 before Martinmas last ; and not being published in the Transactions now, they 

 would not appear till 1867. He did not think that was very business-like. 

 However, he believed the forms of the Society, and the general way of con- 

 ducting these things, had led to it. He found no fault with the late Secretary 

 or the officials, but surely if the thing was to be of any use, and after an 

 expenditure of L.50 on it, the world ought to know the result. He proposed 

 that the manuscripts should be sent to the agricultural papers, leaving the 

 authorised reports to be published in the Transactions when convenient. He 

 had had complaints from the competitors that the publication had taken so 

 long a time, and he had also been spoken to by several other gentlemen 

 about it. 



Mr Irvine said one reason why these reports had not appeared so soon as 

 might be desirable, was the limited space at their disposal in the Transactions 



