vi  Report  to  the  General  Meeting. 
The  success  of  the  Reading  Meeting  was  seriously  interfered 
with  by  the  wet  weather  during  the  first  two  days,  but,  owing  to 
the  fine  weather  on  the  three  following  days,  the  Meeting  did 
not  entail  a much  greater  loss  than  can  be  covered  by  the 
surplus  of  the  Society’s  ordinary  income  over  its  expenditure. 
The  persistent  rain  during  the  week  preceding  the  Show, 
which  continued  almost  incessantly  for  some  time  afterwards, 
made  the  competition  for  Mr.  Martin  J.  Sutton’s  Prize  “ for  an 
efficient  and  economical  method  of  Drying  Hay  or  Corn-crops 
artificially ’r  a very  laborious  and  costly  proceeding.  As  none 
of  the  machines  entered  for  Trial  were  capable  of  making  hay 
in  wet  weather  or  of  drying  corn  efficiently,  the  award  of  the 
Prize  was  withheld.  A complete  Report  on  this  competition, 
written  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Little,  one  of  the  Judges,  was  published 
in  the  last  number  of  the  ‘ Journal.’ 
The  Trials  of  Cream  Separators  in  competition  for  the  Gold 
Medals  offered  were  marred  in  consequence  of  an  injunction  in 
Chancery  having  been  applied  for  against  the  Society,  as  well  as 
against  the  Exhibitors  of  some  of  the  competing  machines. 
Although  the  application  was  not  successful,  it  caused  some  of 
the  competitors  to  withdraw  the  implements  which  they  had 
entered  for  Trial.  The  Judges,  however,  were  enabled  to  award 
the  Gold  Medal  in  the  Class  for  Separators  to  be  worked  by 
Horse-power. 
The  offer  for  special  Prizes  for  an  efficient  portable  Straw- 
compressing and  Binding-machine,  to  be  worked  in  conjunction 
with  a Threshing-machine,  and  for  the  best  Milking-machine, 
to  be  tested  during  six  consecutive  months,  produced  no  com- 
petition. The  same  result  followed  the  offer  of  the  Gold  Medal 
for  the  most  efficient  and  economical  Apparatus  for  excavating 
Field-drains.  The  Council  have  resolved  to  repeat  the  offer  of 
a special  Prize  for  a Straw-compressing  and  Binding-machine 
for  competition  at  the  York  Meeting. 
The  Prizes  offered  by  the  Reading  Local  Committee  for  the 
best-managed  Farms  in  Berkshire,  or  situated  within  20  miles 
of  the  Town  Hall  of  Reading,  produced  a good  entry  in  the 
Class  of  large  Farms,  but  only  one  in  that  of  small  Farms.  The 
Report  of  this  competition,  written  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Blundell, 
one  of  the  Judges,  was  published  in  the  last  number  of  the 
‘ Journal.’ 
In  conjunction  with  the  York  Local  Committee,  the  Council 
