Report to the General Meeting. 
ix 
The Chairman of the Journal Committee shall alone be 
empowered to open the motto-paper of such Essays, not obtaining 
the prize, as he may think likely to be useful for the Society's 
objects, with a view of consulting the writer confidentially as to 
his willingness to place such jiaper at the disposal of the Journal 
Committee. 
The copyright of all Essays gaining prizes shall belong to the 
Societj^ who shall accordingly have the power to publish the 
whole or any part of such Essays, and other Essays will be 
returned on the application of the writers ; but the Society do not 
make themselves responsible for their loss. 
The Judges are not bound to award a prize unless they con- 
sider one of the Essays deserving of it. 
In all reports of experiments the expenses shall be accurately 
detailed. 
The imperial weights and measures only are those by which 
calculations are to be made. 
No prize shall be given for an Essay which has been already 
in print. 
Prizes may be taken in money or in plate, at the option of the 
successful candidate. 
All Essays must be addressed to the Secretary, at the house of 
the Society. 
Every Essay must be written in the English language, or must 
be accompanied by an English translation. 
Since the last half-yearly meeting, the trial of " Kidd v. the 
Royal Agricultural Society" has taken place at Leeds. This 
action was brought by Mr. Kidd, in consequence of some state- 
ments made in the Quarterly Report of the Chemical Committee 
last March. 
• The trial was held before Mr. Justice Blackburn and a special 
jury, and lasted for three days. The jury deliberated for five 
hours, and ultimately gave a verdict of 10/. 10s. against the Societv, 
which will carry costs. In order to give all members of the 
Society an opportunity of expressing their opinion on the course 
pursued by the Council, a verbatim report of the proceedings was 
published in the last number of the Journal ; and the action 
that has since been taken by the seed-crushers in Hull leads the 
Council to believe that the trial, although unfortunate to the 
