John Coleman. 
689 
his later years he renewed his connection with the Royal Agri- 
cultural College as honoraiy professor. In 1865 he became 
agricultural editor to the Field, and from that time till a few 
months before his death his life was a most active one, alike as 
writer, journalist, and reporter, in addition to his work as private 
land agent, and — since leaving Escrick — in business at York as 
a land agent and farm valuer of great repute. 
Mr. Coleman's association with this Journal commenced in 
the same way as Mr. Clarke's, viz. by winning one of the 
Society's Essay-prizes. In 1855, 40^. was offered for the best 
essay on the causes of fertility and barrenness in soils ; and 
Mr. Coleman's succinct and valuable prize thesis on this in- 
teresting subject appeared in Vol. XVI. (1856). His next 
iq^pearance in the Journal was in 1859 (Vol. XIX.), when, 
writing from Cii'encester, where he was then installed as Pro- 
fessor of Agriculture, he addressed himself to the very practical 
question of " how the general principles of commercial accounts 
may be reduced to a form adapted to the general pui-poses of a 
farmer." His advice is sound and his method easily compre- 
hensible : and it is a matter for surprise that so little improve- 
ment has been manifested in the accounts of the ordinary farmer 
during the 30 years that have elapsed since Mr. Coleman first 
called attention to the matter in these columns. 
Mr. Coleman was in constant request by the Society as a 
Judge and Reporter in the Implement Department of its country 
meetings, and in all his inquiries and reports was most unsparing 
of himself. In 1864 he reported on the Implements exhibited 
at Newcastle, and particularly on the Steam Cultivation trials 
which were the special feature of that meeting. At Plymouth 
(1865), he reported on the Implement Department, and was a 
Judge of Mowing and Reaping Machines and Miscellaneous 
Implements. At Bury St. Edmunds (1867 — there being no 
show in 1866), he reported on the Implement trials, which that 
year were made of peculiar importance and variety in view of the 
absence of cattle from the Show in consequence of the cattle 
plague, and he also acted as one of the Judges of Thrashing 
Machines. In the same volume (New Series, Vol. III.) of the 
Journal appears a report by his pen on the then burning ques- 
tion of Steam Cultivation, he being the Reporter of the Supple- 
mentary Committee, deputed by the Society to inquire into the 
results of Steam Cultivation in Yorkshire, Durham, Cumberland, 
Westmoreland, Lancaster, Salop, Nottingham, Stafford, and 
Leicester, as part of the general inquiry to which reference has 
already been made (page 686). He was a Judge of Steam Cul- 
tivators at Leicester (1868), of Plans and Models of Labourers' 
VOL. XXIV. — S. S. Y Y 
