The late Mr. H. M. Jenkins. 
207 
with the exception of that from the nursery seed wheat, which 
had not been suitable for such late sowing. " The gratitude of 
the peasantry," he says, " was unbounded, and much benefit has 
accrued to the agriculture of France generally by the distribu- 
tion of new varieties, the value of which had been unknown." 
The labour of correspondence, inquiry, superintendence of 
deputed organisers, carriers, &c., was immense, but the result 
was worth it. M. Drouyn de Lhuys speaks of the volunteer 
movement on the spot, which was thus directed and supplied. 
" Delegates," he says, " volunteered their services to distribute 
relief to our cultivators in their distress, even in the midst of 
our ruined villages — courageous as soldiers, zealous as mis- 
sionaries, exact as accountants, on their return they prepared 
with marvellous accuracy the balance sheets of their novel 
commercial operations, which consisted in giving everything 
and receiving nothing." Mr. Jenkins's report in the ' Journal ' 
gives full credit to the share borne by his colleagues, and by 
the many English volunteers whose labour was thus directed. 
His own great share in these labours is left to be inferred : the 
whole story is well worth reading now. 
Before concluding, some reference should be made to the 
occasional use which Mr. Jenkins made of both daily and 
weekly journals when any agricultural lesson or information 
needed immediate publication — his occasional communications 
to the * Times ' newspaper and to the agricultural papers, of 
which I have grateful recollection so far as the ' Agricultural 
Gazette' is concerned. 
This memoir has been wholly eulogistic. If any hint of 
fault or failure has escaped, it is in the apologetic tone of one 
sentence in the most sympathetic and appreciative letter sent to 
me by Mr. Wells. I was not aware of any abruptness of manner 
in Mr. Jenkins's relations with outsiders, of which it there appears 
that some were conscious, but I have understood that his will 
was always law within the scope of his duties ; and that may 
have influenced his manner generally. Not that his will had to 
be asserted, but that it was invariably obeyed ; all the threads 
led up to him ; and a complicated business such as included all 
the various organizations working in Hanover Sqnare, could 
not otherwise be conducted. The Royal Agricultural Society 
of England has in fact lost a most efficient and devoted servant, 
whose faults, whether of manner or of any other kind, will be 
readily condoned by any one who considers the great constitu- 
tional difficulty which was his lifelong trouble ; and the Society 
