356 
Report of the Council. 
196 (brought forward) 
6,921 3Iembers paying an annual subscription of 11. ; 
16 Members who, having paid annual subscriptions for 50 
Years, have become Life Members ; 
3,731 Life Members who have compounded for their annual sub- 
scriptions ; 
64 Life Members by Examination ; 
10,928 Total number of Governors and Members; 
or a net decrease of 56 Members during the year. 
4. Since the last Meeting the Society has sustained a very severe 
loss by the death of the Duke of Bedford, a Trustee of the Society, 
and one of its most munificent benefactors. His Grace not only 
provided the land for the establishment of the Society's Experi- 
mental Farm at Woburn in tlie year 1876, but most generously bore 
the whole cost of the valuable experiments carried on there since 
that time. The Duke acted as Chairman of the Education Com- 
mittee of the Society from 1874 to 1879, when he succeeded H.R.H. 
the Prince of Wales as President of the Society after the Kilburn 
Meeting. Though not often present of late years at the meetings 
of the Council, His Grace continued to the last to take an active 
interest in the Society's welfare. The Council have great gratification 
in reporting that the present Duke of Bedford, on succeeding to the 
title, spontaneously expressed his wish to provide for the carrying 
on of the experiments at Woburn as heretofore, thereby ensuring 
the continuance of a work not only valuable in itself, but of the 
highest importance to agriculture and to the country at large. 
5. The Council have also to regret the loss by death of the Earl 
of Powis, another of the Trustees of the Society. The late Earl 
joined the Council as long ago as 1856, and had ever since taken an 
active interest in the general business of the Society. Lord Powis 
was President in the year 1860-61, on the occasion of the very suc- 
cessful Meeting held at Leeds, and was elected a Trustee of the 
Society soon after the termination of his presidency. 
6. Tiie vacancy caused by the death of the Duke of Bedford has 
been filled by the transference of the Earl of Ravensworth to the list 
of Trustees ; and to fill other vacancies Mr. E. Wilfrid Stanyforth, of 
Kirk Hammerton Hall, York, and Lt.rCol. J. K Curtis-Hayward, of 
Quedgeley, Gloucester, have been elected Memoers of the Council. 
7. The accounts for the year 1890 have been examined and 
certified by the Auditors and Accountants of the Society, and are 
published in the current number of the Journal. The final results 
of the working of the year are that, after writing off the customary 
percentages for depreciation, the Society's assets amounted at 
December 31, 1890, to 35,176^. 13«, 2d., as against 38,056/. 7s. IQd. 
at the end of 1889. 
