DEATH OF A FAMOUS SCOTTISH FARMER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 9

DEATH OF A FAMOUS SCOTTISH FARMER.

Scottish agriculture, and indeed the agriculture of the world, has sustained a serious loss by the death of Mr John Speir, Newton Farm, Glasgow, which took place with startling luddenness near the end of. January. He had bsen in his usual health and was busy making arrangements for a visit to hi* farm of a, large band of agricultural students, when he suddenly expired, heart failure being the cause. Mr Speii', who was well-known personally or by repute, to many agriculturists in New Zealand, was one of the most enterprising and up-to-date farmers in the United Kingdom. At Newton he kept not only a large herd of cows, but engaged extensively in the growth of various kinds of market garden crops for the supply of the large city in nis immediate vicinity. But he was best known to the outside world for activities in the promotion of what may be called scientifio agriculture. He was the pioneer in Scotland of the system of keeping niik record's of cows. During his different visits to the Continent and to Canada he became impressed with the value of such records, and quite lately he was successful in inducing the Highland arid Agri-cultural Society, of which he has been a director for several years, to give a grant for the establishment of such a system. The movement met with a good deal, of opposition to begin with, but Mr Speir persevered with it, and now the system is in operator all over the dairy districts of the west of Scotland, and has been attended with the very best results. At the time of his death Mr Speir was engaged in an experiment to test the question of milk yields with cows ■ kept at different temperatures, this experiment being also carried out by means of a grant from the Highland Society. Mr Speir also took a great interest in the question of tuberculosis in cattle, and was a member of the departmental committee which reported on the subject some years ago. In addition to being a director of the Highland and Agricultural Society, ho was a past president of th& Scottish Chamber of Agriculture, and a member of numerous other agricultural bodies. Mr Speir was in special favour with American and Continenatl agriculturists, and about a year ago had conferred upon him, by King Haakon of Norway, the title of Knight of

St Olav, in recognition of lis numerous acta of kindness to Scandinavian visitors. A man of boundless energy and wide practical experience, Mr Speir's death so unlocked for, is deeply regretted in Scotland. Mr Soeir was born in 1850. Principal R. Patrick Wright, of the West of Scotland College of Agriculture, in the course of a "ew words, referring to.the death of Mr Speir, said:—His knowledge of agriculture was remarkable, and quite unequalled in its range and minuteness, and was only excelled by bis extraordinary vitality, energy, and capacity for work. The services he has rendered to agriculture have been great and important, but he was a man much greater in himself than in his achievements, and he was easily capable, had opportunity occurred, of doing far greater things than he actually accomplished. It was only, through the accident of circumstances thaifhe became a farmer. His natural bent was toward engineering,, but in his early days he offered his services to Stanley on one of his journeys into Africa, and had his offer been accepted and his health permitted, I brieve that he would have attained to a first position in the ranks of our greatest explorers. He was a man-of great physical courage and ot unconquerable, spirit and determination, and I have sometimes thought that had Scotland in the nineteenth century been in the position she held in the thirteenth, we mio-ht have found in Mr Speir a second Sir° William Wallace. But his lot was cast in peaceful times; the opportunity for great public service was denied him, yet even in the quiet oecuvjation of a .farmer he succeeded in accomplishing so to acquire a reputation that extended even beyond the regions where the English language is spoken, as was shown by the publu! recognition he received a few years ago from the King of Norway. But I cannot in these few words attempt to do justice to Mr Speir's public achievements. In his personal character he was remarkablv sincere, straightforward, and free from, guile, and to me he has been a staunch and true and most congenial friend for more than twenty years. Hardly has there been a session during,the whole of that period when our classes have not had a member from Mi Speir's family or his farm, and our students have enjoyed many excursions to Newton, and have always upent most instructive days there. Never lived any man who was happier than Mr Speir in giving instruction and information to all who desired it, and my personal debt to him during: the early years of .my lectureship for information, .support, advice ungrudgingly rendered is greater than I have ever been able to acknowledge, much less to repay.