Agriculwre and the House of Russell. 
139 
on the 'death of his cousin in May 1872. Although he did 
not take ati active share in the debates in the Commons during 
his Parliamentary career, " never had constituency," writes a 
Bedfordshire elector to me, " a more exemplary member." 
In 1872, Colonel Kingscote, C.B., M.P., then, as now, a 
very active Member of the Council of this Society, made a 
special effort to obtain new subscribers to the Society amongst 
his Parliamentary colleagues ; and one of those whom he in- 
duced to join was Mr. Hastings Russell. Almost immediately 
afterwards the eighth Duke died, and the new Duke took up 
the Governorship which has been held by the head of the house 
of Russell ever since the Society was formed. 
Very shortly after, in June 1873, his Grace was elected a 
Member of the Council to fill the vacancy caused by the elec- 
tion of Lord Kesteven as Trustee ; and he speedily took an 
active share in the business of the Chemical and Education 
Committees, of which latter he was elected Chairman in 1874. 
He held the post of Chairman of the Education Committee 
until he succeeded to the Presidency in 1879, and it was chiefly 
owing to the efforts of His Grace and of Mr. Dent that the 
Society's scheme of Junior Scholarships was promulgated in 1874. 
The Duke was elected a Vice-President of the Society in 
November 1874, on the death of the Earl of Egmont ; and when 
the Society's Jubilee was celebrated in June 1889, he was 
elected a Trustee. He was chosen to succeed H.R.H. the 
Prince of Wales as President of the Society after the Kilburn 
Meeting in 1879, and retired from the Presidential Chair at 
the conclusion of the Carlisle Meeting in 1880 — memorable for 
the deluge of rain, no less than 2'78 inches falling in the four 
days, Monday to Thursday, so that at one time the swollen 
Caldew, a tributary of the Eden, threatened to inundate the 
Show-ground. In 1874, when the Society pitched its tents 
at Bedford, the Duke gave 1,000Z. to the Local Fund, and took 
great interest in the proceedings. In 1878 he was elected 
President of the Smithfield Club. Of late years his Grace has 
not often been seen at the Meetings of the Royal Agricultural 
Society in Hanover Square ; but his interest in the Society's 
welfare continued unabated to the last, and its affairs were often 
the topic of conversation between him and his contemporaries 
on the Council. 
It is, however, in his munificent endowment of the Woburn 
experiments that the Duke's connection with agriculture will 
be chiefly remembered. In the spring number of the Journal 
of this Society for 1875, Mr. (now Sir John) Lawes had written 
an article on the estimated value of manure obtained by the 
