Children of Rachel and John Robertson

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. It is pleasing to know that the Government of India has been for some three years past making an effort to improve the agriculture of the Presidency of Madras, by maintaining a model farm; and it is still more gratifying to know that our Cotteswold College has furnished a new manager. Mr. William Rowntree Robertson, who graduated in 1863, and who has since been agent to Lord Dufferin, sails today to take the direction of the farm at Sydapet, having been appointed to the post on the recommendation of the Principal of the College.

MODEL FARMING IN INDIA.

We have received an interesting report of the Government model and experimental farms in India, which are under the management of a Mr W.R. Robertson, a gentleman who holds the diploma of the Royal Agricultural College. He has occupied the poet about two years, and, judging from the number of experiments detailed, he has not been idle. We shall allude to some of the more interesting details. [ . . . continues at considerable length]

EXPERIMENTAL FARMING IN INDIA.—We have been favoured with a copy of the Agricultural Gazette of India, in which there appears an elaborate report from the secretary of agriculture to the Government of Madras on the establishment of experimental farms in various parts of India. The report speaks in highly eulogist terms of the valuable services of a Mr William Rowntree Robertson. It may not be uninteresting to our readers to know that the gentleman so highly spoken of is the son of Mr John Robertson of Rothbury, and maltster of Gateshead-on-Tyne. Mr Robertson, who is quite a young man, was the manager of the farms of Lord Dufferin, in Ireland, and left this part of the country only three years ago; and by dint of steadiness, perseverance, and his thorough knowledge of farming, has succeeded in obtaining the appointment of  superintendent of the whole of the experimental and model farms at Sydapet, and has recently receive an additional appointment from Lord Napier, the Governor of India, who, in a minuted made by His Excellency, dated Ootacamund, September 22, 1871, after congratulating the government on Mr Robertson's appointment, says: "The scheme for the institution of provincial farms which the government have sanctioned, has reference to cultivation in the plains: and with this view I would direct Mr Robertson, an experienced and discriminating agriculturist, to proceed to Ootacamund, when he can best be spared from his employments at the Presidency, for the purpose of reporting to government on the productive capacities of the district." The Agricultural Gazette of India, Nov. 21, 1871, says; "The government have recently received the report of the Sydapet farm committee for 1869–70 and 1870–71, and have recorded their satisfaction with the valuable results which have been attained under the skilful management of Mr Robertson, the superintendent, in whom the government possess an officer admirably fitted for his post, and who adds to his other acquirements as a scientific and practical agriculturist, the great advantage of several years experience of India, popularity with the natives, and a thorough appreciation of the fact that the experiment, to be successful, must be economically conducted." Mr Roberts, it would appear from the same paper, is also connected with the "implement workshops attached to the farms at Madras."

We have now before us the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Government Farms in the Madras Presidency for the year ending March 1872. Getting on for two years old, this report is, nevertheless, of some value; the delay in its appearance is accounted for by Mr. W.R. Robertson, the superintendent, by the press of work and engagements which left office-work behind. The Government Farms in the Madras Presidency are known as the Sydapet Farms, and they consist of the Experimental Farm and the Model Farm. [ . . . continues at some length]

AGRICULTURE IN MADRAS.

WE HAVE FROM TIME TO TIME drawn attention to the efforts of the Madras Government towards the improvement of the ryots and the development of the country. At first our thoughts were turned into this channel from interest in Mr W.R. Robertson, the superintendent of the Sydapet Farms, where most of the work has been carried on. His success having been long since assured, we continue to give publicity to his annual reports, on account of the great importance of the subject. It is through the development and extension of such means, and especially of educational advantages, that we can hope to solidify our rule in India, and make it a blessing to its teeming millions. At present the work is truly uphill, but there are encouraging features, and we cannot doubt that, if persevered in, our efforts will be attended with success. Mr Robertson has done much good work since he undertook the charge of the Sydapet Farms—work that, as he explains, has so accumulated and increased upon him that his staff of assistants has had to be largely increased. His office is coming to be regarded as the medium through which agricultural information to the Presidency is collected and disseminated. Correspondents are encouraged, and Mr Robertson prints a selection of the questions which he has had to answer during the year. [ . . . continues at length]

[ . . . ] The Sydapet farm, in the earlier years of its existence, proved as deplorable a failure as those in the mofussil, but its present able and experienced Superintendent, Mr. W.R. Robertson, a graduate of the Cirencester Agricultural College, has succeeded, not only in averting a collapse, but in making the farm prove a successful and paying concern, so far as the farm itself is in question. But the real object in which it was intended by the projector, that the farm should compass, has not been attained. [ . . . ]

MR. W.R. ROBERTSON, Superintendent of Government Farms, with reference to the notification published by the Government of India in the Fort St. George Gazette, points out that, since the trial of the rheea fibre machines at Saharanpur in 1872, a new rheea machine has been invented in America, which seems competent to meet the wants of the Government of India. [ . . . ]

Mr W R Robertson, Superintendent of Government Farms, nineteen months' furlough to Europe, under Section 12 of the Civil Leave Code, from or after the 1st May 1879.

PERMITTED TO RETURN.

[ . . . ] Mr. W.R. Robertson, M. Uncov. [ . . . ]

EUROPEAN PLOUGHS IN BELLARY.—Mr. W.R. Robertson, the Agricultural reporter to the Government of Madras, and Principal of the Agricultural College, Saidapet, who was sent to Bellary to inspect the European ploughs imported by Sabapathy Moodelly, returned to Madras to-day by the 1-35 P.M. north west mail train. Mr. Robertson delivered a lecture on Wednesday last on tillage and instruments at Warlow's Institution, Bellary.

ROUGH ON A SPECIALIST.

IT should have been good news for Mr. W.R. ROBERTSON, member of the Royal Agricultural College of England, and President of the Agricultural College of Madras, that his old friend and collaborator, the Earl of DUFFERIN, is about to come out to India in a rather influential position. For he has not had a very good time, so far, in Madras. He brought out credentials, as a scientific agriculturist, of the highest character; but somehow, from the first, he has not succeeded in commending himself to any Governor, Member of Council, or Member of the Board of Revenue as a person of obvious public utility. We are not prepared to say that he has not himself to blame, to some extent, for the strong official prejudice against him which exists. He is a terribly wordy man on paper, and when he gets a chance—and the opportunity is not frequent—he lets his nimble nib run away with him. His prolixity is very irritating, and we can therefore, to some extent, excuse his official critics for the unanimity with which they vote him a bore. Moreover, there is so far very little to show for the large sum that to date has been extended upon his entertainment as a specialist. We dare say he has been "cribbed, cabined and confined" by the habitual indisposition that has been shewn to back him up, and that, had he been better understood, had he been trusted more, and had more rope been allowed him, he would now be able to point with complacency to more remarkable and numerous results of his services in India than we are aware of. But he has always found the Government, and the Board of Revenue unteachable and stubborn. He has tried to teach, he himself having been engaged to be a teacher; but he has incurred the penalty of wounding the self-respect of gentlemen who believe that they and their fellows have nothing to learn from him or any other man in regard to agriculture in India.

We have before us, and we propose to review at our leisure, the Annual Report, published to-day, of the Department of Revenue Settlement and Agriculture for 1882-83. Attached to it is the Resolution of the Board of Revenue, 3rd October 1883, the first two paragraphs of which are as follows:—

Mr. Robertson's annual report as Agricultural Reporter appears to the Board to contain a great deal of matter that might well have been omitted. They think it would be better if he refrained in future from indulging in the species of generalisation to be found at the end of his 33rd paragraph, where he says "a very general belief is springing up that irrigation water is generally far too lavishly used in South Indian Agriculture; but up to the present time no really reliable data have collected applicable to ordinary conditions." The Board think that Mr. Robertson has much to learn about irrigation from the ryot, and can teach him nothing about it, while they question the general accuracy of his dictum.

They are at a loss, too, to follow Mr Robertson's line of thought when he wrote in paragraph 78 that "of course where milk can be sold at 4 annas per measure it will not pay to make cheese, even where it is possible to cure cheese." The price of the milk will doubtless to a great extent affect the price of the cheese, but if that price includes the cost of the milk and a fair profit, and there is a market at that price, it ought to make cheese.

On the 19th November 1883, the Government passed its order on the Report, and remarked:—"Whilst the Government agree with the Board in thinking that Mr. ROBERTSON's report might have been somewhat condensed, they are of opinion that it contains much useful and interesting information, and they are unable to endorse the criticisms which find expression" by the Board—" in paragraphs of the Proceedings read above. It has long been an admitted fact that water supplied by direct flow for irrigation is not economised by the ryots to the same extent as when they have to lift it, and any experiments furnishing reliable data as to the quantity of water necessary to mature a crop under varying conditions of soil and climate, will be of great agricultural value." Mr. ROBERTSON is doubtless indebted primarily to Professor M.A. LAWSON for this deprecation of the Board's ill-advised criticism. If Mr. ROBERTSON were a man of fair means, who could afford to forfeit his prospective claim to pension, and to throw up his present appointment, he might possibly have resented the Board's discourteous remarks by offering to the Government the alternative of requiring the Board to cancel its Resolution, or of accepting his resignation. If he has merited the sharp rebuke that the Board administered, or if he indeed has, as the Board says, "much to learn about irrigation from the ryot" notwithstanding it is sixteen years since he accepted the thankless appointment of Superintendent of Madras Government Farms, then he should be promptly told that the Government has no further need of his services, and he should be made to give place to a man who is up to his work, or who "can teach" the ryot something, without exposing "the general accuracy of his dictum" to the unveiled contempt of the Board. So, as we commenced by saying, it should be good news to Mr. ROBERTSON that Lord DUFFERIN is coming out, for he has had the honour of working with, and for that nobleman in Ireland, and his capabilities as an agriculturist have been proved to his Lordship's satisfaction. Highly trained specialists like Mr. ROBERTSON, Professor LAWSON and Mr. HAVELL have a right to ordinarily respectful treatment at the hands of the Government and the Board of Revenue, and it is not reasonable to expect them to patiently submit to personal affront at the hands of any Department because they venture in the discharge of official duty, to express, in an unaggressive manner, their honest opinions about matters which they ought to know. The remarks of the Board of Revenue above quoted are not only in bad taste but they prove, when read with the Government's dissent, that the gentlemen who offered then are not yet altogether in a position to teach Mr. ROBERTSON to suck eggs.—Id.

INDIAN AGRICULTURE.

The Indian Planters' Gazette.—Mr. W.R. Robertson, lately Director of Agriculture in Madras, recently read an interesting account of "Agriculture, and its Improvement in Southern India" before the Society of Arts. Mr. Robertson's connection with the well-known Madras experimental Farm at Saidapet, from the day the Government took over the 300 acres of worn out land covered with a jungle of prickly pear and wild guava, much of it barren sand, little better than the sand of the seashore, till the day when this worn out jungle became the seat of the Madras College of Agriculture, training natives from all parts of the Empire in duties connected with agriculture, enables him to place on record a clear statement of his difficulties and his success. With becoming modesty and justice Mr. Robertson details the immense amount of preliminary work performed in the Madras Presidency by a generation of public servants, few of whom are now alive. It may rather astonish some of our globe-trotting, cold season visiting friends, who pay a winter's visit to India, and go home and tell winter tales all their lives long, to know that the ignorance of the agricultural population of India surpasses anything existing in any other country in the world. It is not only that they are grossly illiterate. Their own vernaculars contain no literature of any sort worth noting, but they are in absolute ignorance in numerous Instances of what actually is the chief crop of their own province. The ignorance of the Indian peasantry of that very pursuit by means of which they earn their living, coupled with the fact that, as a rule, the wealthier classes take no interest whatever in agriculture, are the chief hindrances, joined to the poverty of people, to agricultural improvement in India; and until the resistance, offered by the above combination of ignorance poverty and indifference is broken down, Indian agriculture will continue much the same as it has been since the mythic ages. The necessity of obtaining men possessed of higher educational attainments to be specially trained for employment under the State, in duties connected with the improvement of native husbandry, was early recognised. But, unfortunately, though very favourable terms were offered to induce such men to offer themselves, the feeling at that time among the native educated classes was so strong and general, that agriculture was too mean a pursuit for educated men to engage in; that no male possessing the needful qualifications offered himself. Latterly students came to Saidapet from all parts of India, notably from Native States, and the good work which it has accomplished is undoubted, though the mass of ignorance and indifference is as evident as ever. As long as natives, who possess a good English education can obtain Government employment by studying agriculture, they will do so. When it is found that the study does not lead to Government preferment, it will be thrown aside for something which does lead up the ladder of officialdom. The native gentlemen who voluntarily give time and money and personal interest to the agricultural pursuits of their tenants are not as plentiful as mangoes, and until they are so, there is not much hope for Indian agriculture.

SHEPHERD.—WANTED a trustworthy MAN, who could act as SHEPHERD, can erect fences and thatch. Work could be found for one or two sons. Preference given to a man whose wife of daughter could work in the dairy or laundry.—Apply to WILLIAM R. ROBERTSON, South Lynch, Hursley, Winchester.

CARTER.—Wanted, a Respectable, experienced MAN; one with a grown up son and daughter preferred; the latter to work in a small laundry; free cottage and garden and good wages.—Apply W.R. Robertson, South Lynch, Hursley, Winchester.

WANTED, a few truck loads of good yellow-fleshed MANGOLDS; and a few tons of good FEEDING STRAW, to be delivered at Old North Road Station.—Apply to W.R. ROBERTSON, Esq., Bourn Lodge, Cambridge.

RANSOME, IPSWICH; steel spring tooth cultivator, with front swivel wheel, and brake, for two horses, bought direct from the makers; in perfect order. Price 8gs., on rail.—Bourn Lodge, Cambridge.

WANTED, a respectable married FARM LABOURER; good house and garden (water laid on); wages 14s. in summer, 13s. in winter; overtime and contract work.—Apply to W.R. Robertson, Esq., Bourne Lodge, near Old North Road Station, Cambridgeshire.

Mr. William R. Robertson, late Principal of the Agricultural College, Madras, has died at his residence, Bourn Lodge, Cambridgeshire, at the age of sixty-five. Joining the Civil Service in 1868, he retired in 1889, and since taking up his residence in Cambridgeshire had been placed on the commission of the peace.

WE REGRET TO LEARN THAT MR W.R. Robertson, late Principal of the Agricultural College, Madras, died on the 24th ultimo, at his residence, Bourn Lodge, Bourn, Cambridgeshire, at the age of 65. Joining the Madras Service in 1868, he served in India for 20 years. Mr. Robertson, who was elected a Fellow of the Unvercity [sic] of Madras in 1882, was a member of the Committee in connection with the scheme of Technical Education.

BOURN LODGE, BOURN, CAMBS

2½ miles from Old North Road Station L. & N.W., 9 miles from St Neots and 10 from Cambridge.

Messrs Arthur Rutter and Sons

 ARE instructed by the Executrix of late W.R. Robertson, Esq., to Sell by Auction on the PREMISES as above, FRIDAY, 8th APRIL, 1904, the Whole of the

Well-made Modem Furniture and Effects,

 Comprising brass, French and Italian bedsteads, spring and hair mattresses, blankets, counterpanes,

SOLID WALNUT BEDROOM SUITES,

Axminster carpets and rugs, curtains, brass kerbs, overmantels, brackets, ornaments

ROSEWOOD INLAID DRAWING ROOM FURNITURE,

Settee in tapestry, occasional tables and chairs, arm chairs,

MASSIVE CARVED WALNUT SIDEBOARD,

Pedestal desk, walnut secretaire and other bookcases,

 PIANOFORTE, by Kirkman, in Rosewood Case,

A "BELL" AMERICAN ORGAN,

Hall stand and chairs, brass table and bracket lamps, kitchen and dairy utensils, china and ware, laundry fittings and utensils,

WAGONETTE, with moveable top, complete, Harness, stable utensils, garden and  miscellaneous effects, and about 16 hives of bees.

Sale to commence at 11 o'clock punctually.

Catalogues of the AUCTIONEERS, 63, Sidney-street, Cambridge, and Bury St. Edmund's.

National Telephone 148.

Mr. James W. Robertson, son of John Robertson, Esq., of Gateshead, successfully passed the examination of the Incorporated Law Society, held on the 14th and 15th inst., and will, on the 24th and 25th inst., be duly admitted an attorney and solicitor.

Mr. J.W. Robertson, Gateshead, has been appointed Solicitor to the Rothbury and Coquetdale Perpetual Benefit Building Society, the office having become vacant by the death of the late Mr. Wm. Wilkinson, solicitor, Morpeth.

NEWCASTLE, St John's, 3rd inst, by the Rev. H.W. Wright, James Watson Robertson, Esq., solicitor, Gateshead, to Miss E.A. Walker, of the Half Moon Hotel, Gateshead.