4 
Agricultur.al Progress and 
the books, but who refused to pay their subscriptions when in 
arrear, on the ground that they had ceased to be members of the 
society. During the earlier portion of the period under con- 
sideration the necessity for prompt measures in such cases was 
not fully recognised ; but in December, 1845, the arrears having 
reached the large amount of 6726/., it became necessary to take 
decisive steps, and in the following year the names of 789 mem- 
bers were struck out of the Society's books. The necessity that 
had thus arisen for purging the list of the names of those whose 
membership was only nominal, will explain the apparently large 
falling off in the Society's numbers which took place in 1847 and 
on one or two subsequent occasions. Alter making these deduc- 
tions, it will be found that the Society's list of subscribers has 
varied but little during this long period, and that the average 
number has been about 5000. 
Column 3 shows the receipts from annual subscriptions and the 
compositions paid by life members. The explanation given of 
the figures in column 2 will also account lor great fluctuation in 
the amounts received under this head. In 1860, for example, no 
less than 2165?. of arrears were paid up. Without this explana- 
tion it would be strange indeed to find that the subscriptions 
received this year more than doubled those of 1859, though 
the number of members had varied but little. In order, there- 
fore, to form a fair estimate of the Society's income, it becomes 
necessary to take an average of the whole period, which shows an 
annual revenue from this source of 5491/. 
The only other source of permanent income consists of the divi- 
dends on the investments which the Society has been able to make 
from time to time in government securities. These dividends 
appear in column 4, and, adding the figures in this to those in 
the preceding column, we arrive at the totals in column 5, which 
show that the society has possessed an average gross income of 
5800/. per annum. 
Turning now to the expenditure side, we find in column 6 that 
the whole cost of management has been defrayed for 1735/. per 
annum, including the repair and maintenance of the house in 
Hanover-square, also rates, taxes, salaries, office charges, and 
sundries. 
The net cost of the Journal is given in column 7. This 
is made up of the charges for paper, printing, and advertising, 
payments for prize essays and literary contributions, in- 
cluding the editor's salary, but deducting the proceeds of the 
sale of the Journal. It is satisfactory to find that the average 
charge on account of the Journal for the last ten years has 
been less than the average annual cost during the preceding ten, 
notwithstanding the additional payments for editorship during 
