Report to the General Meeting. 
xliii 
breakers, thatchmaking-machines, steam-cultivating machinery, 
agricultural locomotives, and waggons suitable for agricultural 
locomotives. They have also resolved that the trials of mowing 
and haymaking-machines which will take place this year at 
Taunton, shall be followed by a trial of reaping-machines and 
sheaf-binders at a proper season next year. By this arrange- 
ment the Council hope to lessen the expense to the Society 
without diminishing the usefulness of the trials, as the classes 
of implements which have been excluded from the list are those 
in which no further improvement of importance is at present 
probable, unless it be of such a nature as to entitle the imple- 
ment to a trial and award as a new invention. They also 
believe that the expenses of exhibition at the Society's Country 
Meetings will be materially reduced in those years, as in 1876, 
when the trials will not take place at the time of the Show, but 
at a more appropriate season. 
The Council have received with much regret the resignation 
of Mr. Brandreth Gibbs as Honorary Director of the Society's 
Country Meetings, an office which he has held for upwards of 
thirty years, much to the advantage and interests of the Society, 
and the duties of which he has discharged with remarkable zeal 
and efficiency ; and they have resolved that a suitable testimonial 
be presented to Mr. Brandreth Gibbs on his retirement from the 
office of Honorary Director, as a mark of the appreciation enter- 
tained by the Society of his valuable services in that position. 
Mr. Gibbs's resignation has rendered it necessary to provide 
for the performance of the duties which he has so long and so 
ably discharged, by a division of the labour and responsibility 
involved ; and the Council have resolved that the Secretary 
shall have charge of the additional office work ; that the Surveyor 
shall be responsible for the final preparation of the implement 
and cattle sheds ; that the Stewards of Implements, Live Stock, 
and Finance shall be responsible for the work of their several 
departments ; and that there shall be a Steward of General 
Arrangements elected for three years, who will have the super- 
vision of the entire Showyard, and act in concert with the 
Stewards of Departments, when appealed to by them, or when 
his assistance may be necessary. The Council have unanimously 
requested Mr. Jacob Wilson to undertake the duties of the office 
for the first time. 
The district assigned for the Country Meeting in 1876 com- 
