t
brought from the Burman dominions...The French naturalists have already
begun to turn their attention to the culture of this valuable tree as
an object of national utility. This will be found impracticable in
France, but may perhaps be attempted somewhere else. To England, the
first commercial country in the world, its importance must be obvious."

Ten years passed, Carey continued to watch and to extend his
agri-horticultural experiments in his own garden, and to correspond
with botanists in all parts of the world, but still nothing was done
publicly in India. At last, on 15th April 1820, when "the advantages
arising from a number of persons uniting themselves as a Society for
the purpose of carrying forward any undertaking" were generally
acknowledged, the shoemaker and preacher who had a generation before
tested these advantages in the formation of the first Foreign Mission
Society, issued a Prospectus of an Agricultural and Horticultural
Society in India, from the "Mission House, Serampore." The prospectus
thus concluded:--"Both in forming such a Society and in subsequently
promoting its objects, important to the happiness of the country as
they regard them, the writer and his colleagues will be happy in doing
all their other avocations will permit." Native as well as European
gentlemen were particularly invited to co-operate. "It is peculiarly
desirable that native gentlemen should be eligible as members of the
Society, because one of its chief objects will be the improvement of
their estates and of the peasantry which reside thereon. They should
therefore not only be eligible as members but also as officers of the
Society in precisely the same manner as Europeans." At the first
meeting in the Town Hall of Calcutta, Carey and Marshman found only
three Europeans beside themselves. They resolved to proceed, and in
two months they secured more than fifty members, several of whom were
natives. The first formal meeting was held on 14th September, when the
constitution was drawn up on the lines laid down in the prospectus, it
being specially provided "that gentlemen of every nation be eligible as
members."

At the next meeting Dr. Carey was requested to draw up a series of
queries, which were circulated widely, in order to obtain "correct
information upon every circumstance which is connected with the state
of agriculture and horticulture in the various provinces of India."
The twenty queries show a grasp of