cxc 
General Meeting of Governors and Members. 
established, the Society would con- 
sent to guide the branches of applied 
science relating to agriculture as 
mentioned in the report, and he 
trusted that the Society would give 
its aid in assisting to carry the 
recommendations of the Commission 
into practical effect. 
The vote of thanks having been put 
to the meeting by the Secretary, 
was adopted unanimously. 
The President said he had to 
thank Sir Henry Simpson and Mr. 
Ealph Palmer for the kind way in 
which they had proposed the vote of 
thanks, and the meeting for the 
manner in which they had received it. 
With regard to what had fallen from 
Sir Henry Simpson, he might say that 
it was really a matter for the Regi- 
stration Committee of the Farriers’ 
Company to settle. TheCouncilof the 
Royal Agricultural Society felt that, 
in view of the very strong feeling there 
was on the Registration Committee 
that the “ doormen,” who had a cer- 
tain position in the trade of shoeing- 
smiths in the great towns, should be 
registered, they ought not to offer any 
decided opposition to the proposal. 
As regards the Society itself, its 
prizes would be given as before to 
men in all ways competent to do 
everything connected with the 
shoeing of a horse. 
With regard to what fell from Mr. 
de Vitre and Mr. Thornton, they were 
fortunate in having a member upon 
their Council who, he had no doubt, 
would take cognisance of what had 
been said. 
Referring to Sir Richard Paget’s 
suggestion, he might say that at Wo- 
burn they had had for some years plots 
sown down with different descriptions 
of mixtures, and the results were 
very striking. Any members of the 
Society who visited the Woburn 
Experimental Farm would derive 
useful information on the subject. 
For the last few years they had 
been trying experiments on that farm 
with different manures. With regard 
to the larger question of trying 
experiments in different districts, the 
Society had had experience of this 
kind, and, if desired, he had no doubt 
that the Council would arrange with 
other bodies and carry out experi- 
ments with grass land in various 
parts of England. 
As to their financial position, the 
Society was fortunate in being so 
well supported, and the Council had 
already made a beginning towards 
paying off some of the debenture 
stock with the proceeds of which that 
house had been bought. He was sure 
that members would do their best to 
increase the number of subscribers, 
and if they continued to have such 
fine weather as at Cambridge this 
year, they would be able to make a 
little profit on their Shows, so that the 
Society might eventually become the 
absolute owners of the property. 
With regard to the overfeeding of 
show animals, they had found it to be 
impracticable to place any very effec- 
tive check upon this practice. He had 
only seen one animal shown in store 
condition, and its owner had acknow- 
ledged that he had given it everything 
possible to eat, and that he could not 
get it fat. (Laughter.) The gentle- 
man who had mentioned the adulter- 
ation of milk and butter had their 
entire sympathy. It was, of course, 
very difficult to deal with it. He 
would point out that there were 
armies of inspectors paid by the rate- 
payers, whose duty it was to protect 
the ratepayers from this adulteration. 
Mr. King had found fault with the 
representation of the Society, and 
also with the fact that they had 
not a sufficient number of practical 
men on the Council. He admitted 
that they had not as many as they 
should like, but it was extremely 
difficult for practical men to leave 
their farms. Most of them had, un- 
fortunately, to be more or less practi- 
cal farmers, inasmuch as they had to 
undertake the cultivation of their own 
land. The interests of the members 
of Council were entirely 7 the interests 
of the agricultural world, and they 
devoted what time they had to the 
service of the Society, believing that 
in so doing they were helping them- 
selves. So long as he had the plea- 
sure and honour of being on that Coun- 
cil, he should consider it his greatest 
privilege to help in every possible way 
the development of agriculture in this 
country. (Hear, hear.) 
The proceedings then terminated. 
