680 
In Memonam : 
From that time he took a prominent part for twenty-five 
years in every department of the work of the Society. In the 
management of its finances his stui'dy sense and his practical 
knowledge of work of every description were invaluable. He 
was perhaps too strict a guardian of the funds of the Society, 
and we sometimes thought that he encouraged the Finance 
Committee to draw the purse-strings too tightly ; although 
when he could be convinced that the money would be well 
spent, we had no cause to complain. He very soon acquired so 
great an influence in the Council that, if any new departure 
were suggested, it was generally considered desirable to see 
what Mr. Randell thought of it before bringing the matter 
forward for discussion. 
On the question of education he and the late Mr. Holland 
were the most conspicuous advocates of the party which held 
that the Council should only deal with technical agricultural 
education, and not concern itself with the general education of 
the agricultural classes. At one time this was a much-debated 
question in the Council, and led to a considerable divergence of 
opinion, and ultimately to a compromise which has not been 
quite so successful in its results as we could have wished. Seeing 
things very clearly himself, and having great readiness and faci- 
lity both in acquiring information and in imparting the results 
of it to others, he did not, I think, recognise that the ordinary 
farmer had not an equal readiness, and that in too many cases 
the want of sound general education prevented him from suf- 
ficiently appreciating the results which science was developing 
in agriculture. At a later period something of the same kind 
actuated Mr. Randell in regard to chemical investigation. He 
was so anxious to put practical results before his fellow-agricul- 
turists, that he rather looked down on scientific investigation, 
and urged the Council to institute and encourage experiments 
which should be cari-ied out by fanners as a part of the practice 
of the farm, under the belief that the results would be sufli- 
ciently accurate, and of more substantial value than those of 
Rothamsted and afterwards of Woburn. 
In both these cases his line of conduct was the result of a 
mind of considerable power, which had made him active in ex- 
periment before his fellows. By an opportune accident, the other 
day I came across a French book published in 1855, giving an 
account by M. le Comte Conrad de Gourcy of his third agri- 
cultural tour in England and Scotland in 1851. Several pages 
are devoted to this gentleman's account of J\Ir. Randell and the 
farm at Chadbury, and he says, " any agriculturists who have 
Bome days to spend in England will do well to visit this farm, 
