John Chalmers M(rrton. 
695 
ways, had been much associated with Mr. Morton, has graphically 
described the leadins: characteristics of his work in the follow- 
ing words : — 
The services of Mr. Morton to agricultural literature must ever te appre- 
ciated by each class of those depending upon the cultivation of the soil for 
their support. In all times, whether of prosperity or adversity, he wrote 
with a spirit of the most kindly sympathy for their successes or reverses. 
The wide experience of his life, the genial and appreciative temper of his 
mind, with a substratum of humour underlpng it all, made him one of the 
pleasantest possible of agricultural writers. 
To the Meetings of our own Society, and to those of the Bath and West 
of England, he was a welcome visitor from the first, and though he never 
spared what seemed a blot in our management, he ever recognised whatever 
of advance was made. 
On dairy questions, on stock-keeping, on eifects of seasons, on use of 
foods, he had the means of gathering information from a host of friends, and 
of putting that information in a most acceptable and instructive shape. 
Mr. Morton died, as probably he himself would have preferred, 
in harness. On Thursday, May 3 last, he had gone to his city 
office as usual to prepare for the nest number of his paper ; he 
had subsequently travelled to Bishop's Stortford on the business 
of the Land Commission ; and had arrived at his Harrow home, 
a little over-fatigued, in the afternoon. He was persuaded to 
lie down for a while ; but within half an hour a noise overhead 
startled those in the room below, and, rushing up, they found 
him on the floor, quite dead. 
He was laid to his rest in the beautiful Harrow Churchyard 
on the following Wednesday (May 9), when the present writer 
had the privilege of representing the Society- of which he had 
been so old and distinguished a member. 
The news of Mr. Morton's decease was received in agricul- 
tural circles with the deepest sorrow and regret. It was uni- 
versally felt that a great and irreparable loss had overtaken 
agricultural journalism and literature, and at the meeting of 
members of the Royal Agricultural Society held on May 22, 
the Chairman (Earl Cathcart) gave eloquent expression to the 
general sentiments. His Lordship remarked on that occasion 
that, " as to the magnitude of the loss which the agi-icultural 
world had experienced in the death of Mr. Morton, he could 
speak with feeling, as Mr. Morton had been a personal friend of 
his own. Mr. Morton was a man of great charm of manner, of 
the utmost simplicity and integrity of character, and a man 
with whom it was delightful to transact business." Lord Cath- 
cart related as an instance of Mr. Morton's generosity and 
kindness of heart, that it was with the greatest difficulty that he 
could be induced to accept the usual honorarium for \vriting 
the memoir of the late Secretary, and he only did so on the 
