Report to the General Meeting. 
XV 
The Council feel it their duty distinctly to state that the 
Charter gives to them the undoubted right of enforcing the de- 
mand for any money due to the Society in a court of law. If 
they are ever compelled to resort to that extreme measure, it will 
be with great regret ; but it is their positive duty not to permit 
the useful objects for which the Society was established to be 
frustrated by allowing the actual receipts to fall short of the legi- 
timate claims of the Society. 
The Journal Committee have reported the unusual excellence 
and sound practical character of the whole of the numerous essays 
sent in this year to compete ft)r the prizes of the Society. They 
have announced the decision of the Judges in reference to an out- 
standing essay of 1843, namely : — 
To Mr. John Clarke, of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, the 
award of the Society's prize of 15/. for the best essay on the ma- 
nagement and application of farm-yard manure ; and the follow- 
ing awards already made of the prizes for the present year, 
namely : — 
To Mr. R. N. Bacon, of Norwich, the prize of 50/., for the 
best report on the present state of the agriculture of Norfolk. 
To Mr. Robert Baker, of Writtle, near Chelmsford, the 
prize of 50/., for the best report on the present state of the agri- 
culture of Essex. 
To Mr. Edward Little, of Lower Sheldon Farm, near Chip- 
penham, the prize of 50/., for the best report on the present state 
of the agriculture of Wiltshire. 
To Mr. John Bravender, of Cirencester, the prize of 50/., 
for the best essay on the indications of the fertility or barrenness 
of soils. 
The Judges appointed to decide on the relative merits of the 
essays in the latter class have not only awarded the prize to Mr. 
Bravender, as announced, but have "highly commended" four of 
the remaining essays ; and the Council having received from Mr. 
William Stace, of Berwick, near Lewes, Sussex, and Mr. John 
Arkell, of Hollow Farm, near Gloucester, the authors respec- 
tively of two of those essays, their full permission for the Journal 
