THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



429 



London, in connection with the Show of 1862, which 

 was agreed to. 



On the motion of Mr. Thompson, M.P., seconded by 

 the Hon. Colonel Hood, Earl Cathcartwas unanimously 

 elected a Member of the Council in the room of Lord 

 Feversham, elected Trustee. 



House List. — Agreeably with the bye-laws, the 

 Council arranged by ballot an election list, to be recom- 

 mended by them for adoption at the ensuing general 

 meeting on the 22Dd inst. 



A Committee was appointed on the motion of Mr. 

 Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Thompson, M.P., to 

 re-arrange the districts ol' England and Wales, where 

 the Society should hold their Country Meetings. 



On the motion of Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, seconded by 

 Mr. Milward, a Committee was appointed to consider 

 and recommend what shall be the privileges of the 

 Press at the Country Meetings of the Society — in refer- 

 ence to time of admittance to the Yard, and of being 

 furnished with Catalogues, and with the awards of the 

 Judges. 



Mr. Holland, M.P., brought forward his motion, 

 which was seconded by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, that the 

 lecture lately delivered by Professor Simonds on the 

 " Nature and Causes of the Disease known as the Rot 

 of Sheep," should be published by the Society in the 

 form of a pamphlet, which was agreed to, the details 

 being referred to the Journal Committee. 



At an adjourned meeting of the Monthly Council, on 

 Wednesday, May S, the Eight Hon, tlie Earl of Powis, 

 PresiJent, in the chair, a letter was read from the Koval 

 Commissioners for the International Exhibition of 1862, 

 requesting the Council to nominate two gentlemen v/ho 

 would be willing to act on the Central Committee formed 

 in connection with the Class of Agricultural INIachines and 

 Implements, to advise her IMajesty's Commissioners on the 

 measures to bo taken for an adequate representation of the 

 class, to examine the demands for space sent in by intend- 

 ing exhibitors, to cneourage the production of suitable ob- 

 jects for exhibition, and to settle the final distribution of 

 space among the exhihitors in the class. 



Mr. Thompson, M.P., and Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, having 

 consented to act, the Secretary was instructed to commu- 

 nicate their names to her Majesty's Commissioners, 



The Wkekly Meeting of Council was held at 12 

 o'clock, when the names of Candidates were proposed, and 

 a lecture was delivered by Professor Voelcker, Consulting 

 Chemist to the Society, on the ftlanufacture of Cheese. 



The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, the lOtli 

 inst., at 12, when Mr. Ciiadwick would read a paper on the 

 Annals of a Liquid Manure Farm. 



It is something to get a full ''open" meeting of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society. Many members of Coun- 

 cil, active enough at other times, are only too careful 

 to absent themselves on such occasions; while the 

 members generally, judging from the past, come to 

 conclude that it will be " all cut and dried," and that 

 Ihey need not waste a morning over such a mere mat- 

 ter of form. But happily this is no longer the case. 

 There never had been so great a gathering in Hanover- 

 square as that on Wednesday, May 22, and as certainly 

 there never was one so decided in its tone, or so hope- 

 ful in its character. It has been the fashion for some 

 years past to regard the Society as exclusive in its con- 

 duct, slothful in its progress, and opposed in many 

 ■ways to the due development and increasing uses of 

 such an association. It has further been the habit to 

 identify this stand-still policy with certain gentlemen 

 on the management, not themselves occupying exactly 

 the highest positions, but ever ready to take them, 

 and so to stand answerable for a vast deal more than 

 either their rank or abilities could in any degree justify. 

 It would be worse than affectation to assume that 

 these are not marked men. But more than this, the 



very evident feeling of the Meeting- went far to 

 confirm all that has been rumoured. The Society 

 has not been doing what it should and might 

 have done, while the obstructives themselves were as 

 easily identified as if wo were here to give each one by 

 name. Mr. Sidney was no longer accuser-general. 

 Of course ho made his " usual speech"; but only to 

 be followed by men of all grades, who had each one 

 some standing abuse to complain of, or some oft- 

 l)rojcctcd improvement to insist upon. Let the reader 

 look to the very full report of the proceedings which 

 wo give, and gather from this how much longer it will 

 be reasonable or even possible to resist the rush of 

 general opinion so forcibly expressed. The Members of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society are coming to take an 

 active interest in the Institution, and it will be well to 

 sec to what they require, ere it be too late for such as 

 resist them. 



If most of the speakers had pet projects of their own, 

 greater publicity was tbo common cry. If one man reads 

 a u.seful paper, or another makes some sensible remarks 

 ujion it, let us have them at once circulated. There is 

 neither use nor sense in keeping everything back for 

 the Joumal; for, as a rule, people will read the news- 

 papers, but they will not read the Joiirnal. So said 

 Mr. Moore from Wiltshire, so said Mr. Baker from 

 Australia, Mr. Orlebar, and others ; while Hear, hear, 

 and general cheers testified as to how the meeting- 

 went with them. The lecture of Professor Simonds on 

 the Sheep Rot has done some good already, but not 

 through the immediate agency of the Society. Even 

 after more than a month's grace from the time of its de- 

 livery and appearance in our columns the Essay was not 

 ready to be laid upon the table. In the interim the Bath 

 and West of England Journal is out, with a treatise on 

 sheep rot of its own, while the Royal is waiting for a 

 few woodcuts that will be ready "shortly" — but an 

 indefinite promise when we remember whence it comes. 

 In the face of this example, Mr. Thompson, has openly 

 announced, as Chairman of the Journal Committee, 

 that the publication of Professor Simonds' paper 

 must not be taken as a precedent. Unfortunately 

 Mr. Thompson was not present at the General Meet- 

 ing, but in his absence Mr. Wren Hoskyns under- 

 took the defence ; and he began by saying that he 

 thought it would be unadvisable to admit reporters to 

 the Monthly Council of Management. This, however, 

 being a point that no one had ever dreamed of 

 pressing, or even moving, and Mr. Hoskyns' at- 

 tention being recalled to the business of the 

 weekly meetings, he ended by saying that he ima- 

 gined tho reporters were admitted to their weekly 

 meetings already. His own opinion being, as it would 

 appear, that they should be there. However the 

 chairman is against any such an innovation, and the 

 Journal thus promises to become as great a bugbear 

 as the very Charter itself. You can't do this because 

 of the Journal, and you must not do that on account 

 of the Charter, until one feels tempted to follow Old 

 Noll's example, and to march in with a file of com- 

 mon members at his side, and an angry order to " take 

 away that bauble !" 



But many of the Council are clearly coming to 

 work with the outside majority. Lord Feversham 

 thought there was much worthy of consideration in 

 what Mr. Sidney said, while his Lordship made an 

 effective onslaught on our old enemy, the over-fed prize 

 bull. Others, again, like Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Torr, and 

 Mr. Wallis — the practical mind of the Council — are 

 ready to advance ; and it will be vain for Mr. Thomp- 

 son, with his Journal, and Colonel Challoner, with his 

 Charter, to resist them. As was well said, bow 

 is it that the arrears have been collected so 

 closely, and that this part of the Balance-sheet reads 



