Annual General Meeting, December' 9, 1914. xli 



indebted to the members of tlie C-orporation, and to their good friend, Sir 

 Bowen Bowen-Jones, who had acted as Chaii'man of the Local Committee, and 

 to all those gentlemen who acted with him ; and to the Honorary Secretaries, 

 Mr. H. C. Clarke and Mr. Alfred Mansell. In referring to the Local Secre- 

 taries, he must make special mention of Mr. Alfred Mansell, whose assistance 

 and advice had been of the greatest service in carrying out the details relative 

 to the Show. Their thanks were also due to Mr. Edward Clothier, the hard- 

 working Local Secretary, and to Mr. Thomas Whitfield, the Secretary of the 

 Shropshire and West Midland Agricultural Society. 



It was needless to say that all arrangements in connection with the Show 

 had been carried out in an admirable manner by Sir Gilbert Greenall, to whom 

 their hearty thanks were due for his invaluable services to the Society as 

 Honorary Director during the past nine years — (applause) — and the Secretary 

 had again performed with zeal and ability his many responsible duties with the 

 assistance of the staff. 



The Report contained the record of other interesting work, including the 

 proposal to hold a show of grain and seeds at Nottingham last October, but 

 which show had to be abandoned owing to the exceptional conditions in the 

 country arising out of the war ; and for the same reason the trials of agricul- 

 tural tractors and ploughs to be used with tractors had had to be postponed. 



The Society were greatly indebted to the Breed Societies for their kind 

 co-operation. They had again come forward with liberal contributions to the 

 Prize Fund, which would enable the Society to issue a very full classification 

 and prize list in connection with the Nottingham Show. 



The membership showed an increase in the year of 136. This was so far 

 satisfactory, but the membership still fell far short of what that of a National 

 Society should be. He would again appeal to all Members to bring the claims 

 of the Society for wider support to the notice of their friends and neighbours, 

 and endeavour substantially to increase the number of their Members during 

 the coming year. 



They were again indebted to the Royal Agricultural Hall Company for 

 their kindness in granting them the use of that room for the meeting, and he 

 would be pleased to convey the Society's thanks to the directors for their 

 kindness. 



Adoption of Report. 



The Report had been printed and circulated to each Member, and the 

 meeting would probably be willing that it should be taken as read. He would 

 therefore call on Mr. Beville Stanier to move its adoption. 



Mr. Beville Stanier said he would like to be allowed to move the 

 adoption of the Report, which was one showing the multitude of good work 

 done by the Society, embracing, he thought, every point in agriculture that 

 could be thought of. Being connected with Shropshire and Shrewsbury, it was 

 with deep regret that he heard of the loss sustained by the Society on coming 

 into their midst. He was sure, however, that, although there had been a loss 

 to the Society, there had been a gain to the county and the district. There 

 was not a single agriculturist who did not acknowledge that he had learned 

 something in that part of the country, and they had gained, although the 

 .Society had lost. He would like to touch for one moment upon the happy 

 coincidence that they had been able to welcome at the Show the South African 

 farmers and also the Siberian farmers, who were now their country's allies. 

 (Hear, hear.) If they had known then what they knew now, these farmers 

 would have been given, if possible, an even greater welcome. There was one 

 point he would like to touch upon, and that was the increase in the number of 

 samples submitted to the Society for analysis. He did not think farmers 

 sufficiently realised the importance of this. Recently he had a sample of 

 wheat sent to him for seed from be^t quality, but which contained two per 

 cent, of dock seed. Worked out at 2J bushels to the acre, at which it would be 



