CHAPTER LIV. 



RELATIONS WITH THE TENANTRY. 



From a report by the Directors to the General Meeting 

 held on the 8th of January 1850, it appears that, for some 

 time previously, the attention of the Board had been directed 

 to the propriety of reducing, to tenant farmers, the annual 

 and life subscriptions then paid by members of the Society. 

 With this view, the Secretary was authorised to communi- 

 cate with some of the leading tenants in different parts of 

 the country. The result of these inquiries was such as to 

 satisfy the Directors that, if the proposed alteration was 

 sanctioned by the Society, its object would not be misinter- 

 preted by the tenantry. 



It was remarked in the report : 'The list of the Society's 

 members at present (1850) comprises 2707 names, of which 

 only 239 are those of tenants. This is, unquestionably, a 

 very small proportion, and does not indicate that amount 

 of support which might be looked for from a body so 

 numerous and so intelligent as the farmers of Scotland. 

 It indeed might induce a casual observer to infer that the 

 Society does not command their confidence, or that, unin- 

 terested in its prosperity, they purposely stand aloof from 

 it. That this is not the case the Directors are well aware. 

 They have ample evidence of the interest which is taken in 

 the Society by agriculturists of all classes ; and through the 

 medium of local associations and local shows, there is con- 

 stantly maintained, between it and the farmers generally, a 

 friendly intercourse and connection. The Directors are 

 disposed to attribute this comparatively small number of 

 tenant members to an idea which at one period was preva- 

 lent, and is not yet altogether exploded. The Society was 

 too much regarded as exclusively a landlords' body ; it was 

 conceived by many that tenants were inadmissible to a 



