principles, a mastery of detail, and
a kindliness of spirit which reveal the practical farmer, the
accomplished observer, and the thoughtful philanthropist all in one.
One only we may quote:--"19. In what manner do you think the comforts
of the peasantry around you could be increased, their health better
secured, and their general happiness promoted?" The Marquis of Hastings
gladly became patron, and ever since the Government has made a grant to
the Society. His wife showed such an interest in its progress that the
members obtained her consent to sit to Chinnery for her portrait to
fill the largest panel in the house at Titigur. Lord Hastings added
the experimental farm, formed near Barrackpore, to the Botanic Garden,
with an immediate view to its assisting the Agricultural Society in
their experiments and pursuits. The Society became speedily popular,
for Carey watched its infancy with loving solicitude, and was the life
of its meetings. In the first eighty-seven years of its existence
seven thousand of the best men in India have been its members, of whom
seven hundred are Asiatics. Agriculturists, military and medical
officers, civilians, clergy, and merchants, are represented on its roll
in nearly equal proportions. The one Society has grown into three in
India, and formed the model for the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, which was not founded till 1838.

Italy and Scotland alone preceded Carey in this organisation, and he
quotes with approbation the action of Sir John Sinclair in 1790, which
led to the first inquiry into the state of British agriculture. The
Transactions which Carey led the Society to promise to publish in
English, Bengali, and Hindostani, have proved to be only the first of a
series of special periodicals representing Indian agriculture
generally, tea, and forestry. The various Governments in India have
economic museums; and the Government of India, under Lord Mayo,
established a Revenue and Agricultural Department expanded by Lord
Curzon. Carey's early proposal of premiums, each of a hundred rupees,
or the Society's gold medal, for the most successful cultivation on a
commercial scale of coffee and improved cotton, for the successful
introduction of European fruits, for the improvement of indigenous
fruits, for the successful introduction from the Eastern Islands of the
mangosteen or doorian, and for the manufacture of cheese equal to
Warwickshire, had the best results in some ca