Obituary. 
179 
It is astonishing how quickly such ricks can be made by women 
and lads bringing the sheaves under their arms to the fork-man 
who hands them to the builder. Perfect preservation from injury 
is insured, and on the first fine day after harvest the small ricks 
can be either carted to the stackyard for incorporation into larger 
stacks, or, what is more frequently done, a portable steam-threshing 
machine is fixed in the centre of the field, and they are carted 
to that, which is actually the most economical system of harvesting 
when threshing wheat has to be done immediately after harvest. 
Throughout every wheat district, those who adopted this method 
last autumn, just after cutting, found that they could thresh out 
their wheat not only early, but in first-class condition. On the 
other hand, many of those who did not had their grain so softened 
by the incessant rains and continuous exposure to the humid 
atmosphere that it has remained unfit to thresh until the spring. 
These small ricks bear the name they are. usually known by, from 
an old popular, but no doubt mistaken, belief that a stiff’ breeze 
passes right through them. The rustic mind has never been able to 
account for the admirable conditioning which invariably ensues, 
except by attributing it to the wind. But this proceeds all the 
same whether the latter be stiff" or gentle. Consequently the free 
circulation of air to the innermost centres of the ricks would more 
probably be the true cause, added, of course, to the perfect protec- 
tion the whole of the sheaf crops receive from wet, their lower ends 
being alone exposed. 
Joseph Darby. 
OBITUARY. 
The Right Hon. Sir James Caird, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
Born 1816 : Died February 9, 1892. 
Since the last issue of this Journal, Agriculture has lost, in the 
person of Sir James Caird, one of its most famous representatives 
and exponents. His long and useful life as a reformer, a politician, 
an economist, a statistician, and an administrator, has been the 
theme of many obituary notices ; but it is only in one aspect of 
his many-sided career that Sir James’s history comes within the 
immediate sphere of action of the Royal Agricultural Society, and 
it is not, therefore, proposed in these pages to do more than touch 
briefly upon his experiences and achievements as an agriculturist. 
