234  Report  to  the  Half-yearly  General  Meeting, 
13.  Volume  65  of  the  Journal,  being  the  Annual  Volume 
for  1304,  is  now  in  preparation,  and  bound  copies  will  be  issued 
to  Members  early  in  the  new  year.  The  Volume  will  contain 
the  usual  records  relating  to  the  Show  and  the  work  -of  the 
various  scientific  departments  during  the  year,  a Biographj^, 
with  ])ortrait,  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  and  ai-ticles  on  Fruit  and 
Vegetable  Farming,  the  Building  of  Rural  Cottages,  and  the 
Agricultm-al  Experiments  of  the  late  Mr.  James  Mason. 
14.  In  the  Chemical  Department  there  has  been  some 
falling  off  in  the  number  of  samples  sent  by  Members  for 
analysis,  the  total  for  the  twelve  months  being  530,  as  against 
660  in  1903.  To  this  must  be  added  a large  number  of  analyses 
in  connection  with  the  awards  of  Prizes  for  Cider  and  Perry 
at  the  Park  Royal  Show.  It  is  satisfactory  to  record  that  the 
number  of  cases  of  misrepresentation  or  adulteration  with 
purchases  made  by  Members  of  the  Society  has  been  but  small. 
At  the  same  time  the  continued  utility  and  need  of  the 
Chemical  Department  have  been  amply  shown,  and  while  a 
considerable  economy  has  been  effected  in  its  working,  it  has 
been  felt  desirable  to  increase  the  facilities  to  Members  in 
obtaining  analyses.  For  this  purj)ose  a revised  scale  of  Fees 
has  been  prepared  which  will  give  Members  the  same  privileges 
as  befoi-e,  but  at  much  reduced  fees. 
15.  The  work  of  experimental  inquirj"  has  been  carried 
on  at  the  Woburn  Fai'in  and  Pot-culture  Station  ; and  the 
experiments  have  been  visited  bj*  a considei'able  number  of 
}>ractical  farmers  as  well  as  scientists.  The  Pot-culture  Station 
continues  \isefully  to  supplement  the  Field  Exjjeriments,  and 
Feeding  Experiments  have  also  formed  part  of  the  winter  work. 
The  financial  position  of  the  Woburn  Farm  threatened  at  one 
time  to  give  rise  to  much  anxiety,  but  this  has  happily  been 
recently  removed  through  the  kindness  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
who  has  testified  his  interest  in  this  branch  of  Ihe  Society’s 
work  by  most  generously  supplying  the  deficiencies  in  the 
Farm  accounts  and  in  promising  an  increased  annual  grant  to 
meet  the  future  conduct  and  development  of  the  inquiries 
carried  on  there. 
16.  The  series  of  Grass  Experiments  commenced  by  the 
Society  in  1895  in  different  parts  of  the  country  have  been  this 
year  again  visited  by  the  Consulting  Botanist  and  the 
Consulting  Chemist,  and  a report  embodying  the  general 
outcome  of  the  work  will  appear  in  the  next  Volume  of  the 
Society’s  Journal. 
17.  Since  June  1,  140  intpiiries  have  been  made  of  the 
Consulting  Botanist ; of  these  58  have  dealt  with  the  j)urity 
and  vitality  of  seeds,  25  with  the  names  and  properties  of 
