xxvi Report of the Council, Decemher, 1853. 



as the sheet-anchor of the Society. The floating cash-balance 

 available for current purposes is constantly in a state of fluctua- 

 tion, from various causes, either connected with irregularity in 

 the remittance of subscription, or from extraordinary demands 

 arising chiefly out of the proceedings of the Country Meetings. 



The country generally is well aware of the great service the 

 Society has rendered, in having raised up, by its prizes on the 

 one hand and its most effective tests on the other, a new body of 

 agricultural implement-makers, whose talent and workmanship 

 now attract general attention. The Council have spared no 

 outlay of money, nor their members either personal zeal or 

 anxiety, to attain this great object ; and having attained it, they 

 feel it their duty to devise means by which the same results 

 may be maintained at a less amount of annual expenditure. 

 They have therefore caused a detailed statement to be prepared, 

 for the information of the members, of the expenses connected 

 with every branch of the Society's country meetings : this has 

 already been completed in the case of the Lewes Meeting, and 

 will be inserted in the ensuing part of the Journal. 



The Gloucester Meeting, notwithstanding the very unfavour- 

 able state of the weather on the principal day of the show, fully 

 satisfied the expectations of the Council. The authorities of the 

 city, the local committee, and the owners and occupiers of sites, 

 contributed zealously to promote the objects of the Society on 

 the occasion, and received at the time the public thanks of the 

 Members at their General Meeting, held in the County Hall. 

 The Society Avere again indebted to the liberality of the railway 

 companies, in the conveyance of implements and live stock, and 

 in their general arrangements for the convenience of the visitors. 

 The senior-stewards of implements and live stock have drawn 

 up reports connected with their respective departments, for 

 publication in the Society's Journal. 



The Council have decided on the following Schedule of Cattle 

 Prizes, to be offered by the Society at the Lincoln Meeting, in 

 the week commencing Monday the 17th of July next : — 



