Report to the General Meeting. xli 



and they have requested the Journal Committee to consider 

 annually a scheme of prizes and conditions, and to report the 

 same to the Council at their July meeting in each year. 



The district assigned for the Country Aleeting in 1875 com- 

 prises the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and 

 Wilts. The Council, having received an invitation from the 

 authorities of Taunton, appointed a Committee to inspect the 

 site of the proposed show-yard and trial-fields, and to confer 

 with the Local Committee in reference to the accommodation 

 offered. This Committee reported in favour of the acceptance 

 of the invitation by the authorities of Taunton, and the Council 

 thereupon decided in favour of the Country Meeting for 1875 

 being held in that locality. 



The Council have also to announce that, in accordance with 

 the rotation of districts at present followed, the Country-meet- 

 ing for 1876 will be held in the district comprising the counties 

 of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, Nottingham, Rut- 

 land, and Warwick. 



The Special Committee on the potato-disease, the appoint- 

 ment of which was reported at the last General oNIeeting, have 

 carefully considered this important question from a scientific 

 as well as a practical point of view, and with special reference 

 to the recommendations of the Judges of the Essays which were 

 sent in to compete for Lord Cathcart s prize of 100/., offered 

 for the best essay on the potato-disease and its prevention. This 

 Committee eventually recommended a thorough inquiry into 

 the whole subject, under the following heads : — (1) By the 

 appointment of Professor de Bary to undertake a special in- 

 vestigation with a view of discovering, if possible, that portion 

 of the life-history of the potato-fungus which is at present 

 unknown. (2.) By the offer of prizes for potatoes that will 

 resist disease for three years in succession in twenty different 

 localities of the United Kingdom, with a view of testing the 

 truth of the assertions made by growers and essayists that 

 they possessed disease-proof potatoes ; and at the same time 

 of ascertaining the influence of climate, soil, and methods of 

 management on the growth, productiveness, and ability to 

 resist disease-of different varieties of the potato. (3) By sending 

 a schedule of questions to large potato-growers in different 

 parts of the United Kingdom, Avith the object of obtaining from 



