vi Report to the General Meeting. 
The District for the Country Meeting of the Society in 1858 
has been decided by the Council, on representations made to 
them by large and influential deputations from North Wales and 
tlie county and city of Chester, to be comprised of the whole of 
North Wales and the counties of Chester, Stafford, and Salop. 
The Council feel deeply indebted to the Earl of Clarendon, 
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign De- 
partment, for the personal interest he has taken in promoting the 
objects of the Society, by instituting such inquiries abroad as 
might lead to the discovery of supplies of guano, or of the alka- 
line and earthy nitrates, in Mexico and other tropical districts: 
also to Sir James Graham, who, as First Lord of the Admiralty, 
has directed extensive search to be made liy Her Majesty's ships 
cruising within the tropics, for those or any other natural deposits 
that might prove advantageous as manuring matter. They have 
at the same time to acknowledge the continued interest evinced 
in their proceedings by Viscount Palmerston, Her Majesty's 
Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, and his 
Lordship's kindness in communicating to the Society from time 
to time whatever information may appear in any degree con- 
ducive to the advancement of agriculture in this country. The 
Council liave reason to hope that the public attention which 
seventeen months ago was called to the importance of a substi- 
tute for guano, by the prize offered by the Society, has not been 
entirely unavailing : for such a discovery, although strictly within 
the range of physical possibility, was not to be expected at once 
to reward the investigation of the chemist or the extended re- 
search of the naturalist. The general consideration, however, 
wliich this subject has now received, has led to the closer study 
of the action of manuring matter, and to a more exact estimate 
of the conditions under which such a substitute may most favour- 
al)ly ])e produced. Tliese inquiries have confirmed the essential 
importance of phosphoric acid and ammonia, and pointed out 
sources from which it is hoped that cheaper supplies of the latter 
substance may be obtained. One hundred and forty-three appli- 
cations have already been received from different parts of the 
