The late Mr. H. M. Jenkins. 
197 
read before the Farmers' Club in February of 1886, relates 
to a subject of the very foremost rank in the economy of 
agriculture. And it was his keen appreciation of that fact 
which induced him to urge the subject of co-operation for market 
I purposes upon what turned out to be a somewhat unsympathetic 
I audience. The difficulties in his way were pointed out by 
i many of the subsequent speakers, and he himself spoke to me 
i afterwards of the performance as a " fiasco " ; but it was far from 
i that, and the weakness in our present system, which he pointed 
! out, is already engaging the efforts of practical reformers, who 
I are stimulated, and to some extent guided, by the arguments 
which he then adduced. 
I may quote here the personal recollections of Mr. S. B. L. 
Druce, the Secretary of the Club, on the earliest and latest of his 
relations with Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Druce has told me that he was 
for some years a member of the Committee of the Club ; and that 
not only had he read several papers, as I have pointed out, but tha*. 
he was always full of resource in connection with the Committee, 
upon which he was a constant attendant. He was especially 
serviceable in selecting subjects for the monthly discussions 
— two at least of the six for last year were his own nomination, 
" I consider," says Mr. Druce, " that our great indebtedness to 
him lies in the light he has thrown on foreign agriculture. 
Englishmen had hitherto considered themselves A 1 in agri- 
c'ulture, as in every other thing. They have had their eyes 
most serviceably opened to unexpected superiority elsewhere, 
especially as regards the dairy management of France and Den- 
mark ; but it is also true of the peasant proprietory system, of 
the general question of thrift, and of the special culture of many 
individual crops. Mr. Jenkins also opened our eyes to many 
advantages (amongst some disadvantages) arising from ' La 
Petite Culture,' and from what are considered the little things 
of the farm." 
Lectures in Ireland. — Reference must now also be made to 
volunteer work of a less formal kind — duties which he sometimes 
undertook. The lectures which he gave in Ireland — one at 
Cork, on Foreign Dairying and Peat-farming ; and another at 
the Dairy Show of the Royal Dublin Society in October, 1883 
— show not only his knowledge and his thoroughness, but his 
aptness as a teacher. 
The Cork lecture on " Foreign Dairying and Peat Farming " 
was prefaced by comparisons of the " extensive " and tlie 
" intensive " in agriculture, which were admirably contrasted and 
illustrated by experience in Holland. Here is an extract ; — 
