182 
Obituary. 
interesting as they were when they were published, will be even 
more valuable and important in time to come, as affording a 
contemporary summary by an authority of undeniable competence 
of the state of agricultural affairs in this country in the nineteenth 
century. 
Sir James Caird’s first association with the Royal Agricultural 
Society dates back more than forty years. In 1851, at the time 
when his reports on the state of agriculture in England were 
appearing in The Times, he joined the Society as an ordinary 
member ; and he took part at intervals in the weekly discussions on 
papers read, which were at one time held in Hanover Square. He 
himself read two papers, one in June 1861, on “Wool,” and a second 
in May 1862, on the “State of Agriculture in Algeria,” which he had 
visited during the cotton famine with the view of inquiring into the 
possibility of extending the production of cotton in that and other 
countries. 
In August 1861, he was nominated for a seat on the Council, 
and it is a little curious that the rival candidates on that occasion 
were two such remarkable men in different spheres of usefulness as 
Mr. Caird and INIr. Charles Randell. The typical tenant farmer won 
the day ; and when later tlie offer of a seat on the Council was again 
made to Sir James, his othcial responsibilities were so great that ho 
was unable to accept the invitation. The Council elected, therefore, 
in his stead his eldest son, Mr. J. A. Caird, who has since done 
yeoman service to the Society as a Member of the Journal, Chemical 
and other important Committees, and as a Steward at the Society’s 
Shows. 
At the beginning of 1890, when the Society’s fiftieth year of 
existence was drawing to a close, it was felt by the Council fitting 
that the very rare distinction of its Honorary Membership should 
be conferred upon Sir James Caird, “ in recognition,” as the formal 
resolution ran, “ of his distinguished services to agriculture.” It is 
interesting now to note that this resolution, moved by Earl Cathcart 
as Chairman of the Committee of Selection, was seconded by Sir 
Jacob Wilson, who, after Sir James’s retirement from office last 
December, was appointed to succeed him as head of the Land 
Department of the Board of Agriculture. 
Sir James took an active interest in the affairs of the Society of 
which he was so distinguished an ornament, and was at all times help- 
ful and encouraging to younger men engaged like himself in the 
advancement of British agriculture. The general regret amongst 
agriculturists at his loss is tempered by the feeling that he has 
departed from amongst us, leaving his life’s woi-k completed, in ripe- 
ness of years and fulness of honours. 
Erxest Clarke. 
