Preface to Pirst Edition. 



when travelling in India. He was a man of many 

 accomplishments and varied interests, much travel 

 in various parts of the world, and was always a 

 most agreeable companion. He was fond of sport, 

 a good man across country, and possessed of all 

 those physical and mental energies which are 

 indispensable to success in most branches of life. 

 Though he wrote and spoke on other subjects, 

 he was chiefly known for the grest interest he 

 took in agriculture and fruit growing, and also 

 for his experiments as regards the cultivation 

 of home-grown tobacco. But, as we have seen, 

 the work of greatest value to the agricultural 

 world was that connected with laying down land 

 to grass. This I followed up in Scotland, both 

 by writing, lecturing, and experimenting on a 

 large scale; and if I have in any degree been 

 the means of improving the mixtures now being 

 used, and diminishing the weeds which the farmers 

 once sowed with their grass seeds, it is entirely 

 owing to the initiative of my late friend, the 

 consequential value of whose work it would, 

 indeed, be difficult to over-estimate. He was 

 appointed one of the governors of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, and, had he 

 not been so unfortunately cut off, would, no 

 doubt, have contributed still further to the pro- 

 gress of agriculture in great Britain. 



I have much pleasure, in conclusion, in acknow- 



