Report to the General Meeting. vii 



" On the Parasitic Fungi of the British Farm." It has been 

 decided that the Country Meeting of the Society for the Western 

 District shall be held next year at the city of Exeter ; and that 

 the District for the year 1853 shall be comprised of the counties 

 of Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Rutland, and be desig- 

 nated the East-Midland District. 



The Council have the satisfaction of receiving from their 

 Journal Committee the most favourable report of the number 

 and value of the Essays competing for the Society's prizes of the 

 present year. They believe that the spirit of inquiry thus 

 aroused on so many important topics of practical interest will 

 lead to that continued progress in the improvement of agri- 

 cultural economy, in all its branches, which it has hitherto been 

 the great object of the Society to promote. But while they 

 regard the stimulus of honorary distinctions and pecuniary 

 rewards, the collection and dissemination of important facts, and 

 the communication of personal experience among farmers them- 

 selves at the Council Meetings in London, and at the Country 

 Meetings held in successive districts of the kingdom, as most 

 effective means for the extension of agricultural knowledge; they 

 rely with the greatest confidence on the friendly co-operation of 

 the owners and occupiers of land, for devising and carrying 

 out, to their mutual advantage and the common good of the 

 country, the most approved systems for the cultivation of the soil, 

 and the best measures for promoting the comfort and welfare of 

 those who depend upon it for their support. 



In conclusion, they beg to remind the Members of the Society 

 that the Council Meetings, on the first Tuesday in each month, 

 are set apart for the strictly official business of the Society, in 

 order that the Meetings on the other Tuesdays of the month may 

 be devoted to the consideration and discussion of such communi- 

 cations of a practical nature as may from time to time be made 

 to them ; and they are desirous to make it extensively known 

 that every Member of the Society has the privilege of attending 

 such three Weekly Meetings of the month, and has it in his 

 power to contribute, by his participation in their proceedings, to 



