Report to the General Meeting. v 



spector of the Society, lias delivered before the Members a lecture 

 on the Skin Diseases of Domestic Animals, and the Royal Veteri- 

 nary College have transmitted to the Council their annual Report. 



One of the original objects for which the Society was founded, 

 the last in the order of enumeration, though by no means the 

 least in importance, is that which proposes " to promote the com- 

 fort and welfare of labourers, and to encourage the improved 

 management of their cottages and gardens." This great and 

 humane object has been constantly the subject of consideration, 

 both officially by the Council and individually by the members of 

 tlie Society. Various ameliorating measures have been proposed, 

 which as far as they have gone have been useful, though they fall 

 far short of that extended system which the importance of the 

 subject demands. The Society has distributed at less than prime 

 cost upwards of 30,000 copies of cottage tracts, containing practical 

 sug'ffestions for the manaijement of labourers' "fardens, and for 

 cottage economy and cookery ; they have also published in their 

 Journal Sir George Nichols's Prize Essay on the best means for 

 improving the condition of the agricultural labourer, as well as Mr. 

 Goddard's and Mr. Macvicar's Prize Essays on the construction 

 of cottages. Last year the Prize for the best essay on labourers' 

 cottages was renewed, and several essays on that subject are at 

 the present moment under the C(msideration of the judges. 



The Chelmsford Meeting, to be held in the middle of July, 

 promises to be equal, in every respect, to the most successful 

 Country Meetings of the Society, The entry of agricultural im- 

 plements and machinery is large beyond precedent ; and as a great 

 number of these, instead of lying inactive, as hitherto, in the 

 yard, will be at ordinary work during certain hours of the Show, 

 they will present a new and instructive feature in the exhibition. 

 The Council have been Induced, on the representation of a very 

 large proportion of the implement manufacturers who exhibited 

 last year at Carlisle, to ajiportion the Society's prizes and tria's 

 in the implement departnuMit over three years, instead of inchuliug 

 lliem al! in each successive year. 'J'he iniplcnu-nfs for prizes 



