Ixii Report to the General Meeting. 
The Council continue to be favoured by the Earl of Clarendon 
with returns furnished by the English Ministers and Consuls, of 
the existence of guano or nitrates within their respective jurisdic- 
tions. The noble Lord has likewise intimated that special 
instructions have been given by the Admiralty for investigation* 
to be made by cruisers in tropical seas in cases where a pro- 
bability of success is indicated by collateral circumstances.. 
These various communications will eventually form a body of 
valuable evidence for the Society ; and the Council cannot toa 
strongly express their deep sense of Lord Clarendon's great, 
interest in promoting the objects of the Society. 
The French Government have transmitted to the Society^ 
through the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in Paris, a 
valuable collection of the most important agricultural works 
recently published in France ; intimating that all requests from 
the Society for any information from France will be complied 
with. The Council, in acknowledging this mark of distinguished 
consideration on tlie part of the French Government, have 
availed themselves of the opportunity of transmitting a complete 
set of the Society's Journal for their acceptance. 
The constant influx of new members from every part of the 
kingdom affords presumption of the public usefulness of the 
Society, and of the advantages derived from a national institu- 
tion which, uniting in itself so large a proportion of the agricul- 
tural community dispersed throughout the country, becomes a 
powerful engine for carrying into effective action those improve- 
ments which, while tending to advance individual interests, pro- 
mote the general welfare of the nation. 
By order of the Council, 
JAMES HUDSON, 
Secretary. 
