PROCEEDINGS AT BOARD MEETINGS. 97 



Proposed Monthly Meetings. — Sir Thomas Buchan Hepburn, Bart., reported, 

 as convener of the committee recently appointed to consider the propriety of re- 

 naming the monthly meetings, first instituted by the Society in 1841 for the dis- 

 cussion of agricultural subjects, that the committee had held a meeting yesterday, 

 when it had been arranged that Professor Williams would deliver a lecture on 

 Wednesday, the 19th March, at two o'clock, on the causes of disease in the horse ; 

 thai Dr Anderson would give an address in March ; and that Mr M'Bride, Pro- 

 fessor of Cattle Pathology to the Society, had undertaken to deliver a third lecture 

 in April. 



Cultivation ry Steam. — The Secretary read the following letter from the 

 Marquis of Tweeddale : — 



" Yester, 3d February 18C8. 



" Dear Mr Menzies, — I have given a good deal of attention to the best means 

 of coming to a satisfactory conclusion in regard to the question we are endeavour- 

 ing to solve, which I consider requires a public and practical solution — that is, the 

 comparative value of steam and horse power in cultivating the land. 



" We have endeavoured by a series of queries to gain the information required 

 from manufacturers of steam apparatus and farmers, both in England and Scotland, 

 as a preliminary step towards gaining our object. 



" It appears to me that a sufficient time has been allowed for that purpose, and 

 now I would propose that a competition should take place in the same field be- 

 tween the steam-plough and horse-plough. 



" I have a field of clay-land which has been drained at 15 feet apart, and has 

 never been ploughed above 8 inches, most probably 7 inches, which I have lately 

 taken into my own hands. This field will be ready for cross ploughing about the 

 middle of March, when a trial could take place. I will produce seventeen pairs 

 i if horses to work against the steam-plough, so that it cannot be said the horses 

 have been picked, as that is the number of pairs I have at work. As steam culti- 

 vation is stated to be the new means of breaking up the soil, I say that 12 inches 

 is the depth that I will fix for the trial. I beg you will lay my proposition before 

 the monthly Court of Directors. — Believe me, yours truly, 



(Signed) ' ' Tweeddale. " 



The Board instructed the Secretary to thank the Marquis for his proposal, and 

 remitted the letter to the Special Committee on Steam Cultivation, with power to 

 make the necessary arrangements for the trial — the Committee to report to next 

 Board Meeting what sum they consider would be required for expenses. 



MEETING OF DIRECTORS, 4th MARCH 1868. 

 Mr Reid, Drem, in the Chair. 



Transactions for 1868. — Mr Irvine of Drum, Chairman of the Publication 

 Committee, laid on the table No. 3 of the Fourth Series of the Transactions, contain- 

 ing nineteen |)rize reports, proceedings of Chemical Department, premiums offered 

 during the current year, and other official documents. 



Field Experiments. — A minute of a meeting of the Chemistry Committee, 

 held on the 12th of February, was read to the Board. The report stated that, 

 after some conversation as to the number of experimenters required, and 

 also in regard to the advisability of conducting experiments on both small 

 and large plots, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the results cor- 

 respond, the Committee recommended that Dr Anderson should communicate 

 with the experimenters of last year, and, on receiving their opinions, consult with 

 a sub-committee, consisting of Mr Harvey, Whittingham Mains ; Mr Melvin, 

 Bonmngton ; and Mr Park, Stoneyhill. The Committee, considering it of im- 

 portance that each experimenter should note the rainfall during the time the 

 experimental crops are growing, recommended that a rain-gauge should, where 

 necessary, be furnished at the Society's expense. The course recommended by the 

 Committee was approved of by the Directors. 



Steam Cultivation. — The Special Committee on Steam Cultivation, to whose 

 consideration the Marquis of Tweeddale's leter, proposing a trial between steam 

 cultivators and horse-ploughs on land at Yester, which had never before been 



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