clxxxviii General Meeting of Governors and Members, 
provided for the Darlington Meeting. 
He looked upon the butter-making 
competitions as of great importance. 
On this subject he could speak from 
his own experience, as they had 
proved most satisfactory in his part . 
of the country, and the butter and 
cheese schools in South Wales had 
done an immense amount of good. 
He thought they must congratulate 
the Board of Agriculture on their 
successes in stamping out pleuro- 
pneumonia and foot - and - mouth 
disease. He doubted, however, the 
advantage of attempting to stamp 
out swine fever in the same way, as 
in his district the most stringent regu- 
lations had failed to produce bene- 
ficial results. 
Mr. George Gibbons, in seconding 
the mot ion, referred to the importance 
of increasing the number of members. 
Their membership might be increased 
to 20,000 if each existing member 
were to introduce a new member 
during the coming year. With regard 
to contagious diseases, he considered 
that tuberculosis deserved more 
attention than it at present received. 
No disease was more fatal to cattle, 
and medical experience testified that 
no disease was more fatal to the 
human being. 
The motion for the adoption of the 
Report was then put, and was unani- 
mously adopted. 
Vote of Thanks to Auditors. 
Mr. T. A. Dickson said he had great 
pleasure in proposing a vote of thanks 
to the Auditors (Messrs. A. H. John- 
son, C. Gay Roberts, and S. B. L. 
Druee) for their services during the 
past year, and he moved that they be 
re-elected for the ensuing year. They 
had done their work well in the past, 
and that was the best guarantee that 
they would do it well in the future. 
He desired to take that opportunity 
of thanking the Council for recon- 
sidering the question of the Educa- 
tion Life Memberships, and he hoped 
that the decision arrived at on the day 
before would never be regretted by 
the Council. He hoped that those 
who were elected Life Members of 
the Society by examination would 
do all they could to further the 
interests of that great body, and 
that they would always be a credit 
to it. 
Mr. G. D. Yeoman had great plea- 
sure in seconding the vote of thanks 
to the Auditors. He would like to 
see the members increase year by 
year, and agreed that one should do 
all one could to get others to join, 
seeing that the Society was the back- 
bone of English farming. 
Suggestions by Members. 
In response to the usual enquiry 
from thfe Chair, as to whether any 
member had remarks to make or sug- 
gestions to offer for the consideration 
of the Council, 
Sir Henry Simpson drew attention 
to the action of the Registration 
Committee of the Farriers’ Company 
in granting registration to “ Door- 
men,” who were only able to take off 
and put on a horse’s shoe, and who 
were not capable of making the shoe. 
He instanced the benefit which had 
been derived from the Society’s shoe- 
ing competitions, and from the regis- 
tration of all-round farriers, which 
had resulted in their being able to 
obtain in country districts the services 
of men who not only knew how to 
shoe a horse well, but who also knew 
something about the structure of the 
horse’s foot. He hoped that the 
consent of the Council would not be 
given to any alteration in the scheme 
of registration which involved the 
granting of any other certificate than 
that which certified that the shoeing - 
smith could fulfil all the duties of his 
trade, and that he knew something of 
the structure of the foot of the horse. 
Mr. Henry de Yitre referred to 
the inadequate accommodation pro- 
vided by the Great Western Railway 
for cattle, which they were now- 
obliged to send in horse-boxes. He 
understood they were to have pro- 
perly fitted cattle-trucks to travel on 
passenger trains, and, in fact, the 
London and North-Western Railway 
gave every possible facility in this 
way, but the Great Western Railway 
had done nothing in this direction. 
Sir R. H. Paget suggested whether 
experiments wiih reference to the 
improvement of grass land might not 
be undertaken by the Society. It was 
quite clear, now that arable cultiva- 
