XIV 



and at an early period turned his attention to those agricultural and 

 economic questions to which he eventually devoted the greater part 

 of his life. 



In 1849 appeared the first edition of his work on ' High Farming,' 

 and in the autumn of that year he visited Ireland, which was still 

 -suffering from the effects of the famine of 184647, and reported to 

 the Government upon the agricultural outlook in that island. In the 

 following year * The Times ' obtained the services of Mr. Caird as 

 commissioner to investigate the condition of agriculture in England. 

 His letters to that newspaper constituted the first general account of 

 English agriculture since the time of Arthur Young, and they after- 

 wards appeared in book form. In 1859 he published an account of a 

 visit to the Prairie Lands of the Mississippi Basin, directing atten- 

 tion to their extraordinary agricultural capabilities. 



In 1857 Mr. Caird entered Parliament, and in the session of 1864 

 he at length carried a resolution in favour of the collection of agri- 

 cultural statistics. As a result of this vote the Agricultural Returns 

 for Great Britain were commenced. These have been issued annually 

 since 1866, and have proved of the highest value. In 1869 he again 

 visited Ireland and published a pamphlet on the Land Question. 



After the great Indian famine of 1876-77, Mr. Caird served upon 

 the Commission which was appointed to enquire into the whole sub- 

 ject, and he afterwards embodied his own views and conclusions in 

 his work, ' India ; the Land and the People.' 



In 1882 Mr. Caird was knighted, being created K.C.B. In 1886 

 he joined Earl Cowper's Irish Commission, and in 1889, upon the 

 formation of the new Board of Agriculture, Sir James Caird became 

 a member of the Board, and was appointed a Privy Councillor. One 

 of his last undertakings was the preparation, at the request of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England, of an account of the work of 

 the Society during the first fifty years of its existence. This valuable 

 retrospect appeared in 1890, in the opening number of the Third 

 Series of the Society's Journal, under the title of " Fifty Years' Pro- 

 gress of British Agriculture." 



Sir James Caird was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1875. He was a J.P. for Kirkcudbrightshire, and a D.L. and J.P. for 

 TVigtonshire. He died in London, February 9, 1892. 



COLONEL JAMES AUGUSTUS GKANT, C.B., C.S.I., died at Nairn on the 

 llth February. He was born at Nairn in 1827, " a son of the 

 manse," being the son of the parish minister. After being educated 

 at the Grammar School, and at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he 

 obtained in 1846 a commission in the Indian Army. In India he 

 saw much hard service : was present at the two sieges of Mooltan, 

 the battle of Gujerat, the relief of Lucknow, under Havelock, and 



