Report to the General Meeting. ix 
adopted for its extermination. This subject must always com- 
mand the attention of the Council, and in consequence of repre- 
sentations as to the lax manner in which the importations of 
Irish cattle are controlled, they have already urged upon the 
Privy Council that more stringent regulations and more careful 
inspection of imported Irish cattle are requisite both at the ports 
of embarkation and arrival. They have further asked the Privy 
Council to take additional precautions to prevent the spread of 
Contagious Diseases from the Deptford Cattle-market, as there 
is reason to believe that Foot-and-mouth Disease has recently 
been conveyed from there to dairies in the neighbourhood, and 
thence to other localities in the Metropolitan district. 
The six varieties of Seed-wheat that were entered in com- 
petition for the prizes of 25Z. and lOZ. offered by the Society for 
distinctly new varieties of wheat were cultivated in the past 
season in Northumberland, Worcestershire, and Wiltshire, by 
Mr. Edwards, at Morpeth, Mr. Randell, at Chadbury, and 
Mr. Rawlence, at Wilton, to whom the Council are much 
indebted ; and also in Bedfordshire on the Society's Experi- 
mental Farm at Woburn, under the superintendence of Mr. 
Maiden. The Council, however, have decided that none of the 
competing varieties fulfilled the conditions required by the 
Society. The Consulting Botanist inspected each of the plots 
in the four districts during the summer, and will make a report 
of the general results of the competition in the forthcoming 
number of the ' Journal.' 
The analytical work for Members of the Society has increased 
20 per cent, in 1880, and nearly twice as many samples were 
analysed in the second year since the opening of the new Labora- 
tory than were sent four years ago. 
Experiments on Swedes, to test the comparative manurial 
value of soluble and insoluble phosphates, have been success- 
fully carried out on twenty-four plots of quarter of an acre each. 
With a view of ascertaining the after effect of the several 
