THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



485 



lished (Cheers.) Agricultural information of every kind was 

 eagerly sought for by the farmers of South Australia ; aud as 

 the price of that society's Journal placed beyond the reach 

 of a large class of farmers the important information which 

 it contained, he did trust that the Council would take into 

 serious consideration the remarks which had been made on 

 that subject, aud either by the admission of reporters, or by 

 the speedy publication, in some cheap form, of all papers and 

 documents which were read before the society, provide that 

 such things should find their way to all parts of the world, 

 producing beneficial results not only here, but in the colonies 

 of the British empire (cheers.) lie perceived that the sale 

 of the Journal amounted to only £140. 



Mr. HoBiis : That is the sale of half a year. 

 Mr. Baker : Well, even a sale of £280, or of a much 

 larger amount, would not, in his opinion, be a sufficient reason 

 for excluding reporters (Hear, hear.) He trusted that during 

 the presidency of His Koyal Highness the Prince Consort the 

 society would extend its wings, aud that its enlarged benefits 

 would not be confined to Great Britain, but be participated in, 

 by means of the press, by all her colonial depeudenciea 

 (Cheers.) 



The Hon. Leslie Melville said, as regarded the ques- 

 tion of publication, it had occurred to him that it might be 

 desirable that when any valuable paper had been read or any 

 important iuformatiou communicated, the Council should issue 

 a sort of supplementary paper, which would appear before the 

 next number of the Journal was published. For example, in 

 auch a case as that which had been mentioned, the delivery 

 of a lecture on rot in sheep, calculated to be very useful to 

 farmers during the present summer, the lecture might have 

 been circulated among the members immediately after its de- 

 livery, and afterwards have formed part of the Journal. Hav- 

 ing formerly had a seat in the Council, he felt bound to testify 

 that while he occupied that position he found that when any 

 practical suggestion was made with a view to improvemeut, 

 the Council were ready to list'Cn to it. He obaetved no ex- 

 clusiveness whatever, and from first to last he found that every 

 proposal which seemed at all likely to be beneficial if adopted 

 was treated with respect aud taken into consideration. 



Mr. Wren Hoskyns said, in the absence of Mr. Thomp- 

 son, the chairman of the Journal Committee, he wished to 

 state that Professor Simonds' lecture on rot in sheep would 

 have been published long ago but for the circumstance that 

 the author required that it should he accompanied with plates, 

 for the completion of which the committee were now waiting. 

 The plates would, he believed, be ready in a few days, and 

 there would be no unnecessary delay in publishing the lecture. 

 He must add that he thought the members of that Society 

 should remember that it was a society ; that as a society it 

 went to great expense in obtaining valuable information ; and 

 that the members should receive first the benefit of the infor- 

 mation which it was instrumental in collecting (cries of "No, 

 no"). Well, all he could aay was that such was the practice 

 of the Geographical Society, the Astronomical Society, and 

 of other societies with which he was acquainted. In the ease 

 of those societies, it was the members who first received the 

 information conveyed (Hear, hear). As regarded the attend- 

 ance of the Press at the monthly meetings — 



Mr. S. Sidney remarked that what he had referred to was 

 the weekly meetings (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Hoskyns had supposed that the reporters were already 

 admitted to the weekly meetings, so that the suggestion made 

 would no doubt receive due attention. 



Mr. ToRR said, in consideriug the question of fiuance, it 

 ought not to be overlooked that the Leeds prize-list was a very 

 liberal one, arid that this affected the funds. The Council 

 anticipated, however, that the Leeds Meeting would prove a 

 very successful one, more particularly as regarded the show of 

 horses ; while he thought it would much increase the attrac- 

 tion if the judges coidd be seen at work, as was generally per- 

 mitted at such shows in Yorkshire. 

 The motion was then put aud carried. 

 On the motion of Lord Heytesbury, seconded by Mr. T. 

 Beale Brown, thauks were voted to the auditors for their ser- 

 vices. 



Mr. Astbury, one of the auditors, briefly returned thanks, 

 and in doing so bore testimony to the maimer in which the 

 accounts are kept. 

 The Chairman said the business on the Agenda having 



been thus terminated, he had now to invite saggestiona for 

 the consideration of the Council. 



Ml-. Beale Brown said he wished to make one or two re- 

 marks. He would first allude to the over-feeding of cattle. 

 The late Lord Ducie endeavoured to grapple with that evil, 

 but he met with great difhculties. The judges could not tell at 

 what amount of fat they ought to stop, and that was the chief 

 obstacle to any improvement. He thought that subject was 

 well worthy of the consideration of the Council. There was 

 another evil which it certainly was in the power of the Coun- 

 cil to remedy ; he referred to the clipping of long-woolled 

 sheep (Hear, hear). The present system of continual clipping 

 was most unsatisfactory. It was deceptive from beginning 

 to end, and the West of England Society had in consequence 

 determined that sheep should be shorn completely town 

 shortly before exhibition. Many men went through the coun- 

 try doing nothing else but clipping sheep ; they might be 

 called sheep-sculptors (laughter). No judge under heaven 

 could give a satisfactory award while the present practice pre- 

 vailed ; and he hoped the Council would take into their serious 

 consideration the propriety of ordering sheep to be shorn 

 down a month before they were shown, bo that the best animal 

 might win the prizj. 



Mr. Neville Grenville said, at the Canterbury meet- 

 ing he gave a notice of motion for a change of the day for 

 holding the general meeting of Society at the annual country 

 show, his object being, not to carry such a motion at a meet- 

 ing like the present, but rather to make a suggestion to the 

 Council. It appeared to him that the general meeting in the 

 country was at present almost a farce. He attended the meet- 

 ing at Salisbury, where the president took the chair, and was 

 supported by one or two members of the Council. There were, 

 besides, a strong attendance of members of the press, four or 

 five loiterers, a speech from Mr. Sidnej% and that was all 

 (laughter). Nor could he say much more for the meeting at 

 Canterbury, which he also attended ; though on that occasion 

 at least one might naturally have expected a good attendance 

 of members of the Society, it being understood that a testi- 

 monial would be presented to a hard-workiug and useful mem- 

 ber of the Council, for work which he had carried on under 

 very difficult circumstances (Hear, hear). However, not even 

 that, nor the prospect of an appropriate speech on the subject 

 from their noble President, sufficed to attract a good atfeud- 

 ance. The consequence of all this was, that rumours, com- 

 plaints, and attacks often went forth in the public pi-ess con- 

 cerning the acts and deeds of the Council ; and 

 there being no opportunity of contradicting them, they gained 

 ground ; whereas if the Council were to meet the Society 

 oftener, and in larger numbers, such things would, he believed, 

 be entirely wiped out (Hear, hear). His feeling on this sub- 

 ject was the result of his observation in the last year. He had 

 read iu the newspapers such frequent complaints about the 

 composition of the Council ; he had so frequently met with 

 the question " Why is not my Lord This and Mr. That ad- 

 mitted a member of the Council ?" that he began to think the 

 Council must be to blame. At a meeting which he attended, 

 he repeated what he had read or heard out of doors to a 

 friend who was present. He asked his friend why so and so were 

 not members of the Council ; and what was the reply ? Why, 

 that they had been on the Council ; but that in consequence 

 of their not having attended the meetings, or paid any atten- 

 tion to the busiuess of the Society, during the whole time that 

 they were members, their colleagues had turued them out 

 (laughter). He thought that was a most satisfactory an- 

 swer, aud he believed that an answer siaiilarly satisfactory 

 might be given to many of the other complaints which were 

 heard out of doors with regard to the Council. It was not 

 at all uncommon for an amateur architect to find fault with a 

 building which had been erected by others, or for a provincial 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer to fancy that no one could manage 

 the finances of the nation so well as himself. As regarded 

 the fund invested, it might be desirable that the bye-lawa 

 should be altered, so as to admit of a portion of it being ex- 

 pended for the benefit of the Society ; but he had no wish 

 to blame the Council for not having hitherto applied any of it 

 to current expenses. He felt grateful to them for their general 

 conduct, and he considered them entitled to the best thanks 

 of the members. 



Col. Challoner wished to say a few words with regard to 

 the suggested change of the day for holding the geneyal 



