Report to the General Meeting. ■ v 



first balance-sheet will be presented to jou under this half-yearly 

 form. 



The Journal Committee still feel a strong desire that the parts 

 of the Journal, as published, should reach the hands of the 

 Members in the securest and most expeditious manner; and your 

 President, as their Chairman, has been anxiously occupied during 

 the autumn recess in completing the classed list of those friends 

 of the Society who have kindly consented to act as agents for the 

 distribution of the copies in every county throughout the king- 

 dom ; this list will be inserted in the forthcoming part of the 

 Journal, on the eve of publication. 



The Council, taking into consideration the incalculable national 

 importance of every circumstance affecting the growth and pro- 

 duce of Wheat, have requested the Members of the Society to 

 transmit for the Museum such specimens as afford a fair average 

 of their peculiar respective districts ; and Professor Henslow, 

 Colonel Le Couteur, and Mr. Morton^ have kindly consented to 

 act as a Committee of Curators in deciding on the plans to be 

 adopted for the preservation and permanent exhibition of these 

 specimens. 



The Council would, in an especial manner, record their sense 

 of Professor Henslow's services in promoting the objects of the 

 Society, in having drawn up and presented to the Journal Com- 

 mittee a valuable Report on the Diseases of Wheat, and in 

 delivering to the Members an illustrative Lecture on the same 

 subject. 



The Council have also been desirous of arriving, if possible, 

 at some conclusions respecting the application of Nitrate of Soda 

 as a manure ; and although the communications already furnished 

 lead to the presumption of highly interesting principles of organic 

 action and laws of vegetable life, about to be developed from these 

 inquiries, they regard the present state of our knowledge on this sub- 

 ject as very imperfect, and requiring much additional information. 



The Council observe, with much satisfaction, that already men 

 of the first scientific character have turned the powers of their 

 minds to the investigation of these interesting but at present re- 



