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HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND & AGRICULTUR.\L 

 SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, 



WITH 



I 



NOTICES OF ANTERIOR SOCIETIES FOR THE PROMOTION OF 

 AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND. 



BY 



ALEXANDER EAMSAY. 



Published for tlie ATitlior by Williaji Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



The Agricultural Gazette.— It is not only an accurate catalogue of the strictly 

 Society performances through its meetings, Transactions, prizes, journals, office- 

 bearers, but a true history of national agricultural improvement ; and the whole is 

 laid before the reader with gi-eat literary skill. The history is no mere catalogue of 

 events. It is a living picture in which quaint humours, local interests, individual 

 memoirs, mingling \rith the account of public services and natural results, have been 

 sketched by a true artist. The book is thus not only useful as a work of reference to 

 any one interested in national progress — it is admirable reading on its own account, 

 and we cannot imagine a better book for the library of the tenant farmer. 



North British Agriculturist.— In a very handsomely got up volume of 600 

 pages, Mr Alexander Ramsay of the Banffshire Journal gives a minute and very care- 

 fully compiled history of a Society which has, for the greater part of a century, been 

 intimately associated with tlie progress of Scottish agriculture. Within the limits of 

 no other volume can agriculturists acquire so much information regarding the ups and 

 downs of the foremost Scotch herds, studs, and flocks. Nowhere else are the advent 

 before the public, the career in that crucial arena, and the withdrawal from competi- 

 tion, of the leading herds, flocks, and .studs in Scotland, during the present century, so 

 fully recorded as in the 250 odd pages descriptive of the general shows of the Society. 



The Farmer. — iMr Ramsay, we think, has found a true mean in this difficult effort 

 of authorship. In a volume of 600 pages he has recorded all that it is desirable or 

 possible to know of the history and progress of the Highland and Agricultural Society 

 within such convenient compass, and this has been done in a pleasant .style through- 

 out, under which the reader is constantly finding history of the liighest kind jiassing 

 before his eye, either directly or suggestively ; while, as the general result, a flood of 

 light is thrown on the amazing progress of agriculture in the Highlands and Lowlands 

 of Scotland during tlie last hundred years. Tlie Highland Society may well be con- 

 gratulated on the publication of this work. It is a book which agriculturists in all 

 parts of the world cannot fail to read with much interest. 



Lm: Stock Journal. — The publication of this volume supplies an important link 

 ill the history of agricultural progress, and is a valuable contribution to agi-icultural 

 literature. 



Chamber of Agriculture Journal. — Mr Ramsay has succeeded in producing 

 what must be to all" agriculturists in the three kingdoms an extremely interesting and 

 instructive volume. 



Mark -Lane Express. — A valuable contribution to the chronicles of agriculture. 



The Field. — The book is well written, and will be read by all who are interested in 

 Scottish agriculture. 



Journal of Forestry and Estates Management. — This valuable work which we 

 can confidently recommend to the notice of our readers as well worthy of their perusal. 



Irish Farmers' Gazette.— The preparation of so elaborate a work, all the details 

 of which are taken from the actual records of the Society, must have entailed an 

 immense amount of lal:>our ; but Mr Ramsay evidently had iiis heart in the work, and 

 he has succeeded in producing a volume which is a monument of his industrj' and 

 talent, as well as of the important features of that gi-eat Society the history of which 

 he has recorded. It has been the fashion of late years amongst certain would-be 

 advanced agriculturists in Scotland to decry and disparage the Highland and Agricul- 

 tural Society, and Mr Ramsay has supplied the best argument against such persons in 

 his faithful description of the vast benefits which the Society has conferred on Scot- 

 land, including those very individuals who are so ready to cast blame upon the 

 Society, simply because it will not adopt their extreme views on certain points. Mr 

 Ramsay's book is a most valuable addition to agricultural literature, and as .such we 

 heartily commend it to our readers. 



