XXX 
Report to the General Meeting. 
and the Local Committee have reported the resolution of the 
Directors of the Midland Counties' Railway, to undertake the 
supply of any number of special trains that may be required on 
the occasion, liberally proposing to receive only half fares for the 
conveyance of cattle and farming implements, and no advance on 
the usual fares for passengers. 
The Council have decided on Southampton as the place of the 
Annual Country Meeting of 1844 ; and have every reason to 
believe that the selection they have thus made will be found 
advantageous both to the members of the Society at large, and to 
the agricultural population residing within the district, in the 
amount of accommodation to visitors which the town itself and its 
immediate neighbourhood are capable of affording, and in the 
facility of communication with every part of the kingdom. 
In order to diminish the expense attending the distribution of 
the Journal, the Council have confirmed the recommendation of 
the Journal Committee, that the publication shall in future take 
place in half-yearly parts, the first half volume to appear in the 
spring, and the second in the autumn of each year ; the whole 
volume for the year containing the same amount of matter as 
heretofore ; and the first half volume for the present year will 
accordingly be issued in a few days, agreeably with this new 
regulation. Dr. Playfair having resolved to devote his attention 
exclusively to the study and practice of agricultural chemistry, 
and to establish at the Royal Institution at Manchester a labora- 
tory for the pursuit and investigation of this subject, the Council 
have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity, of appointing 
him the consulting chemist to the Society — an honorary designa- 
tion, in virtue of which the Society will at all times be favoured 
with Dr. Playfair 's gratuitous opinion on any question in that 
science submitted to him by the Council, while members who 
wish to obtain analyses of soils or other substances may at any 
time, by applying to the Secretary, obtain the scale of Dr. Play- 
fair's charges. 
The Journal Committee have reported the following adjudica- 
tions of prize essays : — 
