THE ANNUAL JOUENAL 



With the Council's concurrence, certain im- 

 provements were then carried out with respect 

 to the general production and arrangement of 

 the Journal, including the substitution of a good 

 cloth binding for paper covers. This change was 

 much appreciated, for it not only rendered the 

 volume much more presentable in appearance, but 

 resulted in its longer preservation on the book- 

 shelves instead of its being consigned to the waste- 

 paper basket, as was often the case when, in paper 

 covers, it reached the untidy and dog's-eared stage. 



Copies are presented to leading institutions 

 on the Continent and in America and the Colonies, 

 as well as in this country, and the communications 

 which reach us from such sources afford good 

 evidence of how much the Journal is read and 

 appreciated abroad. If by any chance a copy 

 miscarries, we receive urgent requests for its 

 replacement, and in several instances of late 

 Colonial and American Institutions have gone to 

 the expense of purchasing back volumes over a 

 long series of years for the sake of the information 

 contained in them. It is remarkable how strong 

 is the desire on the part of the New World to be 

 put into early possession of all that the Old World 

 is doing for the promotion of agriculture, and this is 

 particularly the case with regard to anything in the 

 nature of scientific investigations and research work. 



The Journal boasts a long pedigree, for the 

 first volume, though under another title, was 

 issued shortly after the foundation of the Society 

 in 1777. Since that time it has numbered among 

 its contributors nearly every agricultural writer 

 of note from Arthur Young onwards. Although 



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