12 PROCEEDTXGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



Mr Shaw, Skaitlmiuir, in secondino; the motion, said lie had heard a good deal abont 

 tlie penuriousness of the Society, and especially in respect to the way they treated 

 attending niemljers. This was the first time he had been summoned in that capacity, 

 and he was never treated more shabbily in any yard he had been in. Why, they even 

 gi-udged him a biscuit or a glass of beer. Their duties as attending members were to 

 wait on the judges — and he must say that the judges took a considerable time in giving 

 tlieir decision — to go to the committee-room and sign the aAvards, to take the judges 

 to the luncheon bar to get their refresliments, shake hands with them, and then retire. 

 Mr Rutherford, Printonan, said he saw in the accounts of the Perth Show a snm 

 of £309, 12s. ibr hotel expenses, and £543, 4s. 7d. for other expenses. He thought 

 some explanation should be given to the meeting of these sums. 



Mr Mackenzie of Portmore said that in the absence of the Treasurer he had been 

 asked to make a statement, on behalf of the Finance Committee, of the income and 

 expemliture of the Society for the last two years. There was an oj)inion abroad that 

 the Society was a rich one, and had a much larger income than was necessary to meet 

 its ordinary expenditure ; and further, that it laid by large sums each year. That was 

 totally opposed to fact. For years no addition had been made to capital. They just 

 balanced the expenditure by the income, takmg one year with another, and looking to 

 the state of the weather now, and the immense loss they should have upon this show, 

 he thought it would be most imprudent that they should tie the Society do■v\^^ by an 

 abstract resolution to spend a portion of their already far too small capital for the pur- 

 poses of the Society. In the year 1877-78, the income consisted of three items — from 

 investments, £2724 ; from subscriptions, £1849 ; and from the chemical stations, £38 

 — makir>g in all £4612. The expenditure, which included £1513 for the expenses of 

 the establishment, £892 to district societies, and £540 for the report on Scottish agri- 

 culture to the Paris Exhibition, was £4730, leaving a loss of £118. Last year the 

 iaconie was £4547, and the expenditure £4271, leaving a surplus of £275 ; but as there 

 was a loss on the Perth Show of £300, that wiped it out. With such a statement 

 before them, he did not think the Society could be called rich, in the ordinary com- 

 mercial sense of the word. He Avished to point out also, that the income of £2702 

 from investments inchided the capitalised amount of the life members' subscrip- 

 tion-:, which could not be put down at less than £15,000, yielding about £600 a-year, 

 so that if that were deducted the income from investments would be brought down to • 

 £2000 — the sum Mr Waldegrave Leslie thought it should be at. 



The Chairman said he thought it well that such a statement should have been made 

 on behalf of the Finance Committee, because it was very i;ndesirable that such an idea 

 should be widely spread that the linances of the Society were in a plethoric condition. 

 It would be sure to lead to discontent. One form of that discontent they had already 

 had from the gentleman who seconded the motion, who complained that he could not 

 get a glass of beer and a biscuit in" the yard for nothing. He thought it desiralde that 

 every courtesy should be extended to those who took so much trouble in the way of 

 judging and performing other arduous duties. Mr Waldegrave Leslie spoke about 

 spending the capital more lavishly, and that statement met with considerable ajiprovab 

 Most people, he supposed, would approve of capital being spent with a lavish hand, 

 but then it had to be remembered that when the capital was spent they would have to- 

 replace it by asking them to put their hands into their pockets, or else the work 

 which the capital performed would have to be left undone. 



There being no amendment, the motion was then deolared carried. 

 Chemical Analysis and Field Experiments. — Mr Scott Dudgeon said he woidd 

 move his motion in two parts — the first relating to chemical analysis, and the second to 

 field experiments. (The first part will be found at page 21 and the second at page 15.) 

 These ])roposals were founded on the assumption that this National Society, existing, 

 as it did, purely for the promotion of agriculture, recognised it to be a duty to en- 

 courage the general use of chemical analysis as a guide in the purchasing of manures 

 and feeding-stuflfs. By more than one resolution the Society had pledged itself to 

 action in this direction ; and it was a field of action in which, it must be admitted, 

 great good might be done. Farmei\s still recpiired to be impressed with the fact that 

 there was no other way of knowing anything about the value of manures, and, to a 

 great exteiit, about feeding-stuffs as well, except through chemical examination ; and 

 that the only protection against imposition and overcharge in the purchasing of these - 

 was to have them submitted to chemical analysis. How facility for analysis could be 

 most efficiently and economically placed within the reach of every farmer in Scotland 

 became, then, a most important question for the consideration of this Society ; and the 

 accomplishment of this desirable end deserved its liberal support. He thought he 

 might assert that the method in which this was to be accomplished had been already 

 solved — viz., by the establishment of local or district analytical associations. The 

 fact that, while a few years ago there were only one or two such associations in exist- 

 ence, there were now somewhere about thirty scattered over Scotland from Orkney to • 

 Berwick, was unmistakable proof that this system was the right one, and fulfilled its 



