Annual General Meeting, December 11, 1912. xli 



Frizes at Bristol. 



Turning again to the Report, the President said there was every indication 

 of a successful exhibition next year at Bristol. (Hear, hear.) The Breed 

 Societies had again been very generous in their support, and the prizes for all 

 classes of stock, i&c, would be on a liberal scale. He might say that the total 

 amount oflEered in prizes would be nearly 11,000/. The Lord Mayor and Cor- 

 poration and the Local Committee of Bristol were most enthusiastic with 

 regard to next year's Show, aird were doing everything they could to assist the 

 Society, so that if the weather was favourable success seemed to be assured. 



Future Shows. 



Another matter he desired to refer to was the fact that the Council, in 

 response to very cordial invitations from the respective localities, had accepted 

 invitations for the holding of the Shows for the next five years, namely, next 

 year at Bristol, in 191-1 at Shrewsbury, 1915 at Nottingham, 1916 at Manchester, 

 and 1917 at Cardiff. (Applause.) 



Gold Medal for Research. 

 There was just one other matter before he sat down. As was stated in the 

 Report last year, it had been decided to offer the Society's gold meilal for 

 original research in agriculture. The entries for the first year closed last 

 Michaelmas, and of the five papers submitted, that sent in by Mr. William 

 Gavin, B.A., on " The Interpretation of Milk Records," had been selected by 

 the referees as the most meritorious work. and. consequently, he had to 

 announce that Mr. Gavin had been awarded the Society's gold medal. 



Adoption of Report. 



Mr. Martin J. Sutton (Reading) said he was only informed as he came 

 into the room that he was to have the honour to move the adoption of the 

 Report. He had very hastily glanced through it — he had previoirsly read it — 

 and marked certain clauses, all but two of which had been referred to by the 

 Chairman, so that there was very little for him to say. He did not think they 

 could pass Clause 7, however, without congratulating themselves that when 

 they did lose the eminently useful services of their present Chairman, they 

 were to be favoured with the help of the Earl of Northbrook. Nothing could 

 be more satisfactory. With regard to what had been said about the annual 

 Exhibition at Doncaster, of course that Show was in their minds, and they 

 could not forget the calamity that seemed to be before them on the Monday of 

 the week of the Show. He could not help remembering, on arriving at the 

 station, seeing cattle going back from the Showground. He had never seen it 

 before. The pouring rain in which they were travelling back, and the terrible 

 depression of everyone connected with the Show, made that first day one to be 

 remembered. None of them had seen such a thing before, or would wish to 

 again. Certainly he would never forget it. And then to think that they 

 pulled through notwithstanding that. Yorkshiremen and others came to their 

 help, and though they could not see the cattle, they could see the horses, in 

 which the Yorkshiremen are so interested. Everybody determined that, so far 

 as in them lay, the Show should be a success, notwithstanding the calamity which 

 befell them in consequence of the outbreak of Fo(3t-and-Mouth Disease. They 

 were very grateful to Prince Arthur of Connaught for coming under such cir- 

 cumstances, and there was no doubt at all that the Royal Show owed a very great 

 debt to the Royal Family, for wherever the Society went, some member of the 

 Royal Family was sure to be with them. The President had already referred 

 to the satisfaction they all felt, not only in having such a splendid site and 

 such a splendid centre for the Show next year at Bristol, but in having had 

 promises from Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Manehester and Cardiff to follow. His 

 experience of the Society during the twenty-two years he had been a Member of 

 the Council was that never before had they had such a succession of great places 



VOL. 78. P 



