lii 
Monthly Council , April 12, 1893. 
Subscriptions for the Stock were 
promised by several gentlemen pre- 
sent. The Stock, which is for a total 
amount of 65,000?., will bear interest 
at 3 per cent, per annum, payable 
half-yearly on January 1st and 
July 1st. 
Journal. 
Earl Cathcart (Chairman) laid 
upon the table copies of the new 
number of the Journal, which had 
now been issued to all the members. 
A resolution asking the Society to 
publish all available information as 
to the success of Agricultural Co- 
operative Societies in England and 
the t olonies had been received from 
the Shropshire Chamber of Agricul- 
ture. The Secretary had been in- 
structed to thank the Shropshire 
Chamber for their suggestion, and 
to say that it should receive careful 
consideration. The proposed arrange- 
ments for the next number of the 
Journal had been considered, together 
with a variety of suggestions for 
articles and notes, and directions re- 
specting them had been given to the 
Editor. 
Lord Cathcart also expressed the 
thanks of the Journal Committee to 
Mr. Pell, Mr. Ashworth, Mr. Pidgeon, 
Mr. Caird, and Mr. Parker for their 
contributions to the recent issue of 
the Journal. He said nothing was so 
satisfactory as having papers in the 
Journal written by members of the 
Council, and the Committee were ex- 
ceeding^ obliged to those gentlemen 
for their able contributions. 
Chemical. 
Mr. Warren read the following 
resolution of the Committee, with 
reference to the death of the Duke of 
Bedford : — “ The Committee feel that 
they cannot meet without placing on 
record their deep regret at the loss 
which the Society has sustained by 
the death of the Duke of Bedford, 
who has generously borne, since his 
accession to the title, the whole of 
llie expenses of the Woburn Farm 
founded by his late father.” He also 
reported that the Committee had 
settled a revised statement of Chemi- 
cal Privileges, with new instructions 
for sampling, &c., which was approved 
and ordered to be issued. 
Seeds and Plant Diseased 
Mr. Whitehead (Chairman) re- 
ported the receipt of the following 
letter from the Board of Agriculture 
as to the use of refuse tobacco for the 
manufacture of sheep washes, insecti- 
cides, &c. : — - 
[Copy.] Board of Agriculture, 
4, Whitehall Place, London, S.W. 
(20,660.) March 22ud, 18J3. 
Sir,— I am directed by the Board of Agri- 
culture to acquaint you, for the information 
of the Royal Agricultural Society, that in 
consequence of the representations made 
from time to time in this Department re- 
specting the withdrawal of the Treasury 
sanction to the experimental cultivation in 
this country of tobacco, which was permitted 
from 1886 to 1800, the Board have been in 
correspondence on this subject with the 
Treasury aud the Customs and Inland 
Revenue Departments. The information 
placed before the Board would seem to in- 
dicate that so little success attended the 
experiments in question that their further 
extension with a view to the production 
of tobacco for smoking purposes would 
appear to be hardly justifiable under the 
circumstances. 
It has, however, been urged by certain 
agriculturists that it might be possible to 
arrive at some arrangement whereby, with- 
out danger to the Revenue, certain experi- 
ments in growth of tobacco for use only in 
the preparation of sheep-washes and insecti- 
cides might be permitted under such con- 
ditions as might be prescribed. 
The Board has been accordingly in com- 
munication with theDepartmentsconcerned 
in this matter, and they have intimated that 
much difficulty and inconvenience would 
accompany any such permissions. They 
have, moreover, pointed out that large 
quantities of so-called refuse snuff, deposited 
at the Queen’s warehouses for drawback and 
abandoned, are at present available for the 
manufacture of washes and insecticides. 
This snuff, the Board understand, is occa- 
sionally di-posed of by the Crown to certain 
manufacturers of the dressings referred to, 
a price being obtained for an inappreciable 
portion of the supply only, although its dis- 
posal in the manner indicated has, in these 
cases, saved the Crown the cost of its 
destruction. The quantity of abandoned 
snuff returned as having been delivered to 
manufacturers of sheep dip, fumigants, and 
blight powder in 1892 was 1,109,357 lb. 
The Board have also ascertained that 
there is a certain quantity of tobacco, 
amounting in 1892 to 110,000 lb., which is 
destroyed by the proprietors thereof in the 
bonded warehouses after garbling, butting, 
or cutting off as damaged, much of which 
might possibly be economically used for 
making the preparations in question, as it 
might probably be obtaii.el at a very sma'l 
price from the owuers of the damaged com- 
modity. 
As regards the abandoned snuff, the Board 
understand that the Customs authorities 
will be prepared to receive any offers for the 
purchase of such snuff, and that it has not 
been deemed necessary to advertise it for 
