Report on International Agricultural Meeting at Lille. 20 ( J 
must be used in sufficient quantities to absorb completely the acid. 
By thoroughly mixing the guano, previously reduced to fine 
powder with sawdust, gypsum, or sand, slightly wetted by the 
acid, both may be intimately incorporated with each other. 
We have seen in the preceding pages that the efficacy of 
Peruvian guano may be greatly increased by improving its me- 
chanical conditions, also by the addition of common salt, and 
especially by treatment with a small quantity of oil of vitriol. 
I am convinced if the suggestions which I offer are carried into 
practice, a considerable saving in the expense of the guano will 
be realized, for it will then be applied to the land in an im- 
proved mechanical condition and in a state of increased chemical 
efficacy. 
12, Hanover Square, London, IV., 
February 1864. 
VII. — Report on International Agricultural Meeting at Lille. 
At the Meeting of the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, on 1st April, 1863, it was resolved (on the invitation of 
the municipal authorities of the city of Lille and of the Pre- 
fect of the Department) that " Sir A. K. Macdonald and Professor 
Wilson be deputed to attend on the Jury on Agricultural Imple- 
ments at the forthcoming International Exhibition near that town." 
In obedience to this resolution we attended the meeting, and now 
beg to submit to the Council the following brief Report of its 
principal features, and of the duties we were invited to take 
part in. 
In France the department of agriculture forms a prominent 
feature of the imperial executive, and each year great meet- 
ings or shows are held, at which large sums of money are ex- 
pended in promoting improvements in the various processes of 
stock and tillage husbandry. For this purpose the country has 
been divided into distinct districts (regions), in each of which 
a competitive agricultural exhibition (concours regional agri- 
cole) is held each year, under the direction and personal super- 
intendence of an officer (i 'nspecteur- General a 1 ' Agriculture), ap- 
pointed by the Minister of Agriculture for that special service. 
At these meetings the exhibitors are, as a rule, confined to those 
farmers and others residing within the districts specified ; and in 
no case hitherto had these meetings assumed anything of a 
national, much less of an international character, by the admis- 
sion of strangers as competitors in the exhibition. 
On the present occasion the district referred to comprised the 
