bacillus to the sheep. It is easily recognised by the red body of the young females, the legs, shield, &c. being dark brown.

It lays its eggs, and undergoes its metamorphoses, in coarse herbage, and after each change seeks a fresh "host" on which to distend itself to a large size by suction of blood.

In all stages grass ticks abstain from all food except when on a host, and they are endowed with extraordinary powers of fasting until a host is found.

Ticks soon die of drought where there is no good harbourage among rank vegetation.

Judging from analogy, it is probable

That the bacillus can only be obtained from a diseased sheep, and inserted by the tick into another sheep.

That ticks convey the bacillus through their eggs to their offspring, as well as retain it through their metamorphoses.

That there is no danger in removing sheep from foul ground to cultivated lowlands, but that the disease is easily imported from one hill farm to another.

Strong and fat animals are nearly as susceptible to attack as weakly ones.

If the land is once free of disease, it can only be re-imported by diseased sheep, or ticks taken from them.

SUGGESTED MEASURES FOR PREVENTION.

Burning and cutting of long grasses, bracken, rushes, &c.
Salt and sulphur given to the sheep.

Inoculation.

Removal of all diseased sheep to a separate inclosure, where hand-picking and dipping are carefully attended to, the pasture is kept short, and damp places are drained. The sheep to be confined to this inclosure so long as the tick season lasts.

Immediate slaughter and burial of all affected sheep.

Authorities quoted: C. A. Barber, Nature, June 1895, p. 198. Dr. Cooper Curtice, Agricultural Gazette New South Wales, July 1896. C. Fuller, The Common Blue Tick of Cape Colony, 1899. Dr. Hunt, Annual Report Department of Agriculture, 1897-8, Brisbane. Dr. E. Klein, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 3rd series, vol. iv., 1893. R. T. Lewis, Trans. Royal Microscopical Soc., May 18, 1892. Dr. Marx, Morphology of Ticks, Washington Ent. Soc. Trans., 1892. Meek and Greig-Smith, The Veterinarian, May 1897. Murray, Handbook of Economic EntomologyAptera. Professor Neumann, Treatise on the Parasites and Parasitic Diseases of Domesticated Animals. J. C. Pound, Queensland Agricultural Journal, May 1898, January 1899. Walckenær and Gervais, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes, Aptera, vol. iii. p. 137 (1844). Professor Williams, Veterinary Journal, November 1896. Highland Soc. Trans. vol. ix. 1897, vol. xv. 1883.

Alnwick.

E. G. WHELER.

645

Official Reports.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

TO THE

HALF YEARLY GENERAL MEETING OF GOVERNORS AND
MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY,

HELD AT THE SOCIETY'S HOUSE,

13 Hanover Square, W.,

ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1899,

The EARL OF COVENTRY (Vice-President) in the Chair.

THE Council have to report that the list of Governors and Members has undergone the following changes during the half-year which has elapsed since the Anniversary General Meeting in May last:-167 new Members have joined the Society, and 10 have been reinstated as Members under Bye-law 12, whilst the deaths of 1 Foundation Life Governor, 1 Honorary Member, 35 Life Members, and 46 Annual Members have been reported. A total of 16 Members have been struck off the books under Bye-law 10, owing to absence of addresses; 27 under Bye-law 11, for arrears of subscription; and 76 have resigned.

2. Amongst other Governors and Members whose loss by death the Society has had to deplore since the last General Meeting are Mons. Henry De Vilmorin, of Paris (one of the Honorary Members); Lord Farrer; Sir C. F. Farran (Chief Justice of Bombay); Sir John H. Fowler, Bart., Sir William Hayward, Colonel Sir Edward Hulse, Bart. (a Foundation Life Governor), Sir C. Lennox Peel, K.C.B., Sir Thomas Story, Mr. W. Talbot Crosbie, of Ardfert Abbey, Tralee, and Mr. Montagu Tharp, of Chippenham, Newmarket.

3. These and other changes bring the total number of Governors and Members now on the Register to 10,846, divided as follows:— 9 Foundation Life Governors (Members elected before the granting of the Charter on March 26, 1840);

73 Governors paying an annual subscription of 51. 106 Life Governors;

6,983 Members paying an annual subscription of 17. ; 3,535 Life Members;

116 Life Members by Examination ;

24 Honorary Members;

10,846 Total number of Governors and Members,

;

as against a total of 11,034 Members at the same period last year.

4. To fill the vacancy caused by the transference of Sir Jacob Wilson to the list of Vice-Presidents, Lord Middleton, of Birdsall House, York, has been elected to a seat on the Council.

5. The Society's Sixtieth Annual Country Meeting was held in June at Mote Park, Maidstone, on a site generally admitted to be one of the most beautiful in the South of England. Although the Local Committee had experienced great difficulties, involving a very heavy expenditure, in providing a supply of water to the Showyard, they carried out their engagements in a thorough and liberal manner, with the result that the Society had one of the most compact and convenient Showyards it has ever occupied. Owing probably to the situation of Maidstone and the absence of large towns in its vicinity, the attendance fell below even the most moderate estimate, in fact, lower than in any of the past twenty-five years, although adequate preparations had been made by the railway companies, who did their best to attract the public to the Meeting.

6. Taking advantage of the nearness of Maidstone to the Continent, a large number of foreign agriculturists visited the Show, including two official Deputations from the National Agricultural Societies of France and Germany. In commemoration of this visit, the Council offered the Honorary Membership of the Society to the heads of the two Deputations-the Marquis de Vogue, President of the Société des Agriculteurs de France, and Herr Berndt von Arnim, Chairman of the Directorate of the Deutsche Landwirtschaft Gesellschaft. The badges of Honorary Membership were personally handed to these two distinguished foreign Agriculturists by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales at the General Meeting held in the Maidstone Showyard, and the Council have reason to know that this international compliment has been greatly appreciated both by the recipients and by the Societies they represent.

7. The Council regret to have to report that the financial result of the Maidstone Meeting, as certified by the Society's Auditors, was the very considerable loss of 6,3827. 18. 1ld. The chief item of ex

penditure connected with the Society's Shows as at present organised is the erection of the sheds and buildings, and the preparation of the site for the purposes of a showyard. This cost the Society at Maidstone 8,1827. There is, as the Members will understand, a very large indispensable expenditure which has annually to be incurred by the Society under this head, whether the show be large or small; but, of course, the cost of the building of the Maidstone showyard was less than that of the two large shows in 1897 and 1898 at Manchester and Birmingham. Timber is now dearer than it used to be, and the price of labour is going up. Moreover, the Society is now under the necessity of laying water-pipes throughout the showyard, which was formerly undertaken and paid for by the Local Committee.

8. The Society has to employ a skilled clerical staff at Hanover Square throughout the year to conduct the correspondence relating to the Show, to deal with the entries, prepare the catalogue, and transact other business connected with the show; and this staff has to be largely augmented at the time of the show by stewards, assistantstewards, money-takers, ticket-sellers, foremen, grooms, yardmen, door and gate keepers, dairy assistants, veterinary surgeons, engineers, and police. The total expense for staff and administration was this year 4,3271. The Society disbursed 4,7917. in prizes, 6747. for forage for the animals, 9617. for the expenses of the judges, 1,1757. for printing (including catalogues), 7091. for advertisements, and 3137. for miscellaneous expenses. These figures do not include the expenditure of the Maidstone Local Committee, amounting to no less than 8, 2007., in providing and preparing the site, supply of water, local prizes, expenses, and the like.

9. The Society, having once pledged itself to the holding of the Show, had practically to expend, or make itself responsible for, the whole of the items above referred to, amounting in all to 21,1327., before it opened the doors of the Show to the public. It received towards this expenditure, 2,000l. from the Local Committee, 4,5061. for fees from the implement exhibitors, 1,648l. from entries of live stock, 2401. from other entries, and 216. from various sources. These items only amounted to 8,6101., and for the balance (12,5221.) of its total expenditure the Society had nothing but the admissions of the paying public to look to. Only 68,576 persons, however, passed the gates (the lowest since 1875), and as these visitors only paid-including purchases of catalogues-6,1407., there was a debit balance of 6,382., which has had to be made good out of the Society's general funds. As the average takings of the previous six years had been 12,1007., this result is naturally a very serious disappointment both to the Council and to the Maidstone Local Committee.

10. It is obvious that Maidstone was hardly the place at which the Society, had it been actuated only by monetary considerations,

would have pitched its showyard during the present year. But it was in accordance with the present scheme of rotation of districts that there should be a show this year in the South of England; and as the Society had not visited Kent for thirty-nine years, that county had a special claim upon its consideration. The Society received a very cordial welcome from Kent and its capital town, and everything possible was done by the local authorities to make the Meeting a success-which, indeed, in every respect but the financial, it undoubtedly was.

11. At the same time, the Council recognise that now that the present rotation is drawing to a close, there may be great advantage in a strong Committee considering carefully and deliberately what modifications or alterations in the existing show system may be desirable in the future, with the view of minimising, as far as possible, the financial risks to the Society incurred by the holding of its Shows. In view, therefore, of the fact that in the year 1902 the present rotation of districts as settled in 1892 will have been completed, and that it will be necessary during the forthcoming year 1900 to come to a decision as to a meeting-place for 1902 in District G-the last of the series-the Council have appointed a Special Committee consisting of the Chairmen of the several permanent committees concerned in the administration of the shows (Finance, Veterinary, Stock Prizes, Implement, Showyard Works, and Dairy), with the Honorary Director, Sir Walter Gilbey, Mr. H. D. Marshall, and Mr. E. W. Stanyforth, to consider and report as to any modifications or alterations in the present show system which they may consider desirable after the present rotation is completed.

12. The Council have decided that the York Meeting shall open on Monday, June 18, and close on the following Friday evening. The Implement Yard and Dairy will be open to the public on the previous Saturday, June 16.

13. The final date for the receipt of entries in the Implement Department has been fixed for Thursday, March 15, 1900, although post entries at double fees may be tendered up to Saturday, March 31, 1900. For Live Stock, including Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs, the entries will close on Monday, April 16, at 10s. per entry; on Tuesday, May 1, at 15s. per post entry; and finally, on Tuesday, May 15, at 17. per late entry. For Poultry and Farm Produce, the entries will close on Tuesday, May 1, at 2s. 6d. per entry, and, finally, on Tuesday, May 15, at 58. per post entry. Double fees will be payable by Non-Members of the Society. An exhibitor will be permitted to make in the Classes for Live Stock and Poultry as many entries in the class as there are prizes offered in that class. Provision will be made for enabling exhibitors who have already entered animals to substitute for them entries of other animals in the same class up to Thursday, May 31, on payment of a registration fee of 58. (Non Members double).