Agricultural Societies

Abstract

THE gain to agriculture from the activities of the various agricultural societies which have flourished during the last two centuries must be enormous. These associations, supported by landlord enthusiasts bent on improving their estates and raising the standard of farming, have spread agricultural knowledge by their publications, by the offer of prizes for information or practical achievement, and by their shows of implements and live-stock. They have continually fostered scientific inquiry into the technical problems of farming, and in their journals are to be found the successive landmarks of agricultural progress. On June 8, 1723, was founded the earliest association of this kind in Scotland under the title “The Honourable the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland”. Its members were certain noblemen and gentlemen who were impressed by the backward state of farming at this period. The Society was concerned with the collection and dissemination of the best agricultural information. It advised members on their farming problems; on cultivations, including the new horsehoeing husbandry of Jethro Tull, on sheep folding and on cattle feeding. Under the last heading the recommendation that the cattle be “not less than seven years old” before feeding commences, reads rather strangely in these days of ‘baby beef’ and rapid turnover. On the other hand, few stockmen will find fault with this:—“Be sure to prepare a careful hand to attend the feeding of them, for upon this depends the whole success of the attempt”. The Society concerned itself with fisheries and manufactures in addition to its main objective. It did not survive the upheaval of 1745, but for twenty years supplied a need which more permanent societies were later to satisfy.