394 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [November i, 1884. 



SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, THE AGRICULTURIST 

 TO "WHOM INDIA IS INDEBTED FOR 

 GUINEA GRASS, ETC. 



(Comut 1 {ideated.) 



In the annals of agriculture, tropical or otherwise, no 

 name stands higher than that of Sir John Sinclair. What 

 steam owes to Stephenson, chemistry to Liebig, the science 

 of agriculture owes to Sir John Sinclair. 



If lie who makes " two blades of grass grow where only 

 nne grew before is a benefactor to his country," what is 

 he who introduces the finest herbage to a country where 

 nothing of the kind grew before ? 



Of all the proud ancestors of his " lordly line," there 

 is not one who has left a name so worthy of being fondly 

 cherished in the hearts of his countrymen as that of this 

 northern laird. It is a long cry to Thurso Castle, where, 

 in 175A, Sir John (to be) first saw the light, and, if we 

 could for a moment realize the condition of Caithness at 

 that time we would be better able to estimate the marvel- 

 lous improvements introduced by him and which by and 

 by changed the rude and rugged face of Scotland into 

 one of the best cultivated countries in the world (making 

 due allowance for climate). 



"When Sir John succeeded to his estate, it may be said 

 to have been in a state of nature. "Within its limits there 

 was not a single tenant who possessed a cart, for the 

 very good reason that not a foot of road existed. The 

 ground was poorly cultivated on what was|called the altern- 

 ate ridge system, if system it can be called, which simply 

 grew sufficient to keep the bodies and souls of the sparse 

 population together. With no ordinary difficulties to con- 

 tend with, in the shape of poverty and prejudices, Sir 

 John succeeded by his dauntless energy and perseverance 

 in successfully combating all opposition, how successfully, 

 may be seen by comparing the condition o2 Caithness in 

 1S10 with that of 1820, where the proportionate increase 

 of population was greater than iu any country in the British 

 Empire, a population too of a very different type from 

 what had previously inhabited it. 



Enterprise, industry, morality and religion went hand in 

 hand, while the soil exhibited as skilful management as 

 the most celebrated districts of the south. Nor were the 

 remarkable energies of Sir John confined to his own country. 

 A cosmopolitan in the best sense of the term, he began 

 early to look far abroad and devise schemes for the mutual 

 benefit of Britain and her colonies, and, while looking to 

 the East for the benefit of such seeds as might be grown 

 or improved here, he was not unmindful of the teeming 

 millions in India who suffer from periodical famines. It 

 was chiefly to his thoughtful care that the potato was 

 first cultivated in India, and, if it has not quite fulfilled 

 all that was expected of it, I suspect its cultivation is 

 still susceptible of great improvement. But by far the 

 greatest boon India acquired through his agency was the 

 introduction of Guinea- Grass. In a Calcutta journal I 

 find a letter dated from Hare Common, near London, Dee- 

 ember 2nd, 1814, in-which Sir John says: — "Understand- 

 ing that herbage was much wanted in our Indian poss- 

 essions, I ventured to recommend the culture of Lucerne 

 (*' gram " ?*) and Guinea Grans, and sent some seeds of each 

 that the experiment might be fairly tried. The result has 



* No: here is information for "C. S." in reference to Lucerne and 

 the ^'ini- to « Inch it belongs : — 



Mi.me.uio.— Tli'- Mfilick genus: one of the Papffionacece, and dis- 

 tinguished by its more or less spirally twisted legume. The more im- 

 portant species are the following : — M. saliva, the Purple Medick, or 

 Lucerne. This, though found apparently wilJ ou the borders of fields, 

 lias doubtless escaped from cultivation; lit is distinguished by it-, purple 

 flowers and upright growth. Its herbage is green and succulent, and 

 has the advantage of being early, on which account it has been highly 

 extolled aaan agricultural plant. It yields too rather abundant crops 

 of green fcod in the year, of a quality highly relished by horses and 

 cattle. -1/. Inpulina, the Black Medick, or Nonsuch, is at first sight so 

 much like the yellow trefoils as to be generally known by farmers as 

 tlu- Hop trefoil, or Hop; it is, however, distinguished by its naked 

 black legume. It is used in farming to mix with grasses and clovers 

 for artificial or shifting pastures, iu which it often assumes a luxuri- 

 ance of growth well betiting it for this purpose. M. maailata, remark- 

 able for its spirally-coiled prickly legumes, has, from the quautity of 

 herbage which it grows, been recommenced for cultivation as a green 

 fodder plant; but it is scarcely equal to the former, while in hay the 

 long prickles to its seed-vessel's render it very objectionable. [J. B.]— 

 Treasury of Botany. 



been most satisfactory. In a letter from the East Iudia 

 Company to the Marquis of Wellesley, dated March 12th, 

 1802, there is the following paragraph: — " We have pe- 

 rused the Proceedings of the Board of Superintendence 

 referred to in your dispatches, and we are much pleased 

 to observe, by those proceedings, that the Lucerne and 

 Guinea Grass thrive in such a manner as to afford a rea- 

 sonable prospect of their becoming an acquisition to the 

 Bengal provinces that will prove invaluable." Upon this 

 subject Mr. Arthur Young observes in his lecture on the 

 advantages which have resulted from the establishment of 

 a Board of Agriculture : — '* Should the cultivation of these 

 plants spread in the manner to be expected, they will prove 

 of as great, importance to -India as ever clover and turnips 

 have done to Britain, which would have been cheaply pur- 

 chased (had purchase been necessary) at the price of a 

 hundred millions sterling." 



About this time, Sir John and "Warren Hastings were in 

 close correspondence ; and there is something so exceedingly 

 interesting and instructive in reading the letters of these 

 noble old men (the one o\«r 70, the other 82), that I need 

 not apologize for making a few extracts. 



Mr. Hastings writes under date 24th August 1814 : — " The 

 practices of the East are doubtless capable of improvement, 

 and such as this kingdom might impart to them ; but the 

 only way to begin it, seems to me, to be the process of 

 inquiry: that is, to ascertain what their practice is, and 

 in what it is defective, considering at the same time the 

 differences of soil and climate, the bodily powers of the 

 cultivator, and of the cattle that he works with, and all 

 other peculiarities, even to the local usages of the country 

 in this art, be they good or bad. We should be sure we 

 are right ourselves before we assume the office of reformers. 

 For instance, the oxen of Bengal, in their present state, 

 would not be able to force a Norfolk plough to the depth 

 of an English furrow, and to effect it would put a Bengal 

 ploughman to the utmost stretch of his might. It is poss- 

 ible, too, that the soil might not be meliorated by turning 

 it to so great a depth. I do believe that the superiority 

 of understanding evinced by some of our inventions in 

 '* husbandry, as in your instance of the threshing machine, 

 with the great assistance which this art has received from 

 the sciences, and the same superiority so eminently dis- 

 played in all the other arts of life, might induce the more 

 intelligent of these people to draw the same favourable 

 conclusions with respect to our moral and religious doct- 

 rines, and with the more probable effect, if left to their 

 own reflections." Sir Johu adds : — " Honorary Boards there- 

 fore ought to be established at each settlement in the East 

 Indies, and each colony in the West to carry this plan 

 of mutual aid into effect. They would not occasion any 

 expense, and would, by a correspondence with the central 

 office in London, conduct the whole operation under the 

 sanction of Government to the benefit of all our colonial 

 possessions. On the whole, the advantages which might be 

 derived by an attention to these objects are certainly in- 

 calculable. They would promote the improvement of the 

 British Islands ; they would augment the prosperity of our 

 "West Indian possessions ; and they would increase the happi- 

 ness and contribute to secure the permanent dominion 

 of our territorial possessions in the East, and all these 

 advantages might be obtained at an expense comparatively 

 insignificant." 



Amongst the descendants of our doughty Norman 

 invaders, few have stood out more prominently in history 

 than the St. Clairs, but, as true benefactors to their adopted 

 country, none will be so well remembered as Sir John, 

 the Agriculturist, and his devoted daughter Catherine, 

 who so long and so well acted the part of his amanuensis. 

 As old age crept over him, he began to feel the rigour 

 of his northern climate, was fain to seek a home a little 

 further south, and purchased a villa in Richmond, Surrey, 

 but he found he was too old to transplant, and within a 

 year sold his English house and returned to die in dear 

 old Edinburgh, surrounded by the associations of his 

 brightest years. In passing along the Canongate the other 

 day, now one of the most squalid thoroughfares in the 

 City, the house in which Sir Johu so long resided was pointed 

 out to me. 



In the private walks of life, says a contemporary, and 

 in the exercise of domestic virtues, Sir John was the per- 



