Tlie Foundation of the Royal Agricultural Society. 15 
Mode of Keeping Roots; 2. Subsoil or Trench Ploughing; 
3. Transportation and Admixture of Soils ; 4. Insects Pre- 
judicial to Plants; 5. The Black Caterpillar; 6. Application of 
Mechanical Power; 7. Two-horse Ploughs; 8. Spring Food, 
Corn, Grasses, Vetches; 9. Rotation of Crops; 10. Best Mode 
of Analysing Soils; 11. Irrigation ; 12. Plantations; 13. 
Underwood; 14. Varieties of Grain; 15, Economical Keep of 
Farm Horses; 16. Improved Rural Economy Abroad; 17. Stall 
Feeding on the Continent; 18. The Diseases of Plants; 19. 
Plough or Implement for Cutting Drains ; and 20. New Imple- 
ments; but the last two were noted as "not for essays." It 
should also be mentioned that at this meeting Mr. J. Benett, 
M.P., expressed a hope that the Society would acquire chemical 
apparatus, with an able chemist, for the purpose of analysing 
samples of soils sent to him, with a view to the adaptation 
thereto of suitable manures. 
Thus, in less than two months from the first meeting at 
the Freemasons' Tavern, the promoters of the Society, by dint of 
earnest and almost incessant labour, guided by a discretion 
commensurate with their zeal, had succeeded in establishing 
this important national institution on a firm and enduring basis, 
with a handsome balance at the bank ; had traced out the main 
lines on which the operations of the Society have since been 
conducted ; and found themselves in a position to look forward 
with confidence to a long and prosperous future. 
The Society having been formally constituted, it had 
reached what may be regarded as an experimental stage — 
hopeful, indeed, but still experimental ; and it redounds greatly 
to the credit of its founders that the soundness of their judg- 
ment in the preliminary arrangements, although these were 
necessarily subject to modification, was attested by their success. 
V\ T e have it on the authority of the late Lord Portman that " in 
the formation of the Council care was taken to select members 
with varied experience,"' and every effort was made at the early 
Councils to bring the scientific and practical men into com- 
munication, and to combine their experience. "When on one 
occasion a member who farmed his own estate, and considered 
himself as eminently a practical man, as distinguished from 
what he called the theoretical members, pressed his contention 
to discussion by moving an alteration in a proposed committee, 
which would have impaired the harmony of the Council, Lord 
Portman suggested that in truth the distinction was chiefly a 
verbal one, for " a practical man was a man who knew what 
was wanted, knew how to do it, and did it " — whereupon the 
objector subsided, and the division of the Council was avoided. 
