Near the end of the eighteenth century Frederick the Great undertook the development of agricultural schools as a part of a broad plan for improving the agricultural condition of Prussia, and his example was followed by his successors. Albrecht Thaer (1752-1828) successfully engaged in practical and scientific farming, and when visitors to his farm at Celle, in Hanover, became numerous he began in 1802 to give them instruction, and this led to the establishment of the agricultural institute in that town. "In 1806 he founded the agricultural school at Moeglin, near Berlin, which became famous, and which was raised to the Royal Academy of Agriculture, 1824." Through his school and his writings Thaer has had a broad influence on the progress of agriculture and agricultural education. In 1811 the academy at Tharandt, in Saxony, was founded and a little later the agricultural college of the University of Leipzig. In Wurtemburg, the agricultural college of Hohenheim was founded in 1818, which had a large model farm. This institution was very successful and attracted much attention in other countries. About 1820 Matthieu de Dombasle founded at Roville, near Nancy, the first school of agriculture worthy of that name in France and almost entirely with private means maintained it for some time. In 1829 the school at Grignon and the following year the school at Grand-Jouan were founded by pupils of Dombasle and later became State schools. DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES RELATED TO AGRICULTURE The movement for agricultural schools and colleges in the United States was intimately associated with the growth of the natural sciences and their applications in Europe. Lavoisier (1743-1794), who laid the foundations of modern chemistry, made experiments on one of his farms. Taking advantage of Lavoisier's work Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1839) began researches in agriculture in 1803 and 10 years later published his Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, a book well known in America. Fredrick Accum (1769-1833) established in London a school of chemistry with a laboratory, to which some students from the United States went, including Prof. Benjamin Silliman, sr., of Yale, and Prof. William Peck, of Harvard (15). Boussingault (1802-1887), professor of agriculture in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris from 1839, made and published many experimental investigations in general and agricultural chemistry, which had much influence in the United States. Students who became leaders in agricultural science in America were trained in Liebig's (1803-1873) laboratory in Germany. His Chemistry in Its Application to Agriculture and Physiology (1840) and Animal Chemistry (1842) became well known here. The works of Buffon (1707-1788) and Cuvier (1769-1832) in natural history, and of Linnaeus (1707-1778), the Jussieu family, Saussure (1767-1845), and Duhamel (1700-1781) in botany early found their way to this country. Among the early geologists was William Smith (1766-1839), who published the first geological maps. of England and wrote on irrigation, and William Maclure, a Scotchman and merchant, who lived many years in the United States and made the first geological map of this country. The relation of mineralogy and geology to the study of soils and to agricultural chemistry was early recognized by those who were interested in agricultural education and research, and these subjects were generally included in the programs proposed for the higher agricultural schools. EARLY SCIENTISTS IN NORTH AMERICA North America was a very attractive field for students of science, particularly natural history, and during the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth a considerable number of men, either residents or travelers in this country, devoted themselves to scientific work. In many cases they attracted the attention of the leaders in efforts for the improvement of education and agriculture and in person or through their writings had contacts with these leaders. Among these early scientists, who were more or less associated with the agricultural movements, were the following: Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), professor of natural history, botany, and materia medica at the Philadelphia College, who wrote much on scientific subjects and published Elements of Botany (1803); John Bartram (1699-1777) and his son William Bartram (1732-1823), who, by extensive travels and collections from New York to Florida, made important contributions to knowledge of native American plants, established a botanic garden near Philadelphia, imported many varieties of cultivated plants and disseminated many species to scientists and growers at home and abroad; Mark Catesby (c. 16791749), an English naturalist who visited America (1712-1719) and published a Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama İslands; John Clayton (1686-1773), who came to Virginia from England in 1705, was clerk of Gloucester County for 51 years, made extensive botanical studies and collections and published papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the London Royal Society; Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), a Scotch physician, who came to Philadelphia in 1708, afterwards was surveyor-general and lieutenant governor of New York State, studied the sciences, particularly botany, and introduced the classification of Linnaeus in this country; David Hosack (1769-1835), professor of Botany at Columbia College from 1795, who established a botanic garden in New York City; Peter Kalm (1716-1779), a Swedish botanist and author of Travels into North America (1770-1772); Humphrey Marshall (1732-1801), who established a botanic garden at Marshalltown, Pa., and published a catalogue of native trees and shrubs; André Michaux (1746–1802), a French botanist, who established large nurseries near Charleston, S. C., and in Bergen County, N. J., and his son, François André Michaux (1770-1855), who studied and wrote on trees east of the Rocky Mountains; John Mitchill (died 1768), who came from England in 1700 and lived at Urbana, Va., studied botany, medicine, and other sciences, wrote much on the conditions in the British colonies and was the reputed author of a book on American husbandry (1775); Gerard Troost (1776-1850), a Dutch physician, chemist, and geologist, who came to America in 1810, was founder and first president of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and contributed papers to the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, being much interested in the relations of chemistry and geology to soils. EARLY AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS IN EUROPE During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a considerable literature on agricultural subjects was developed in a number of European countries. The writings of certain ancient authors on such subjects were also available during this period, particularly those of Virgil, Columella, and Varro. In France the publication of works on agriculture was much stimulated by the great series of volumes commonly called the Encyclopedia (1751-1780), which contained articles on this subject. In Great Britain there were agricultural works by about 200 authors before 1800. Among English publications which had an important influence in the United States was Jethro Tull's Horse Hoing Husbandry, or a Treatise on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation, three editions of which were published between 1733 and 1751. The Annals of Agriculture and Other Useful Arts, a periodical begun in London in 1784 by Arthur Young (1741-1820), widely promoted the advancement of agriculture in Europe and America. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN EUROPE The first agricultural society in Germany was established in 1764. In France there was an early Society of Agriculturists. This was succeeded by the Academy of Agriculture of France, which began the publication of proceedings as early as 1761. In Russia the Free Economical Society was established by the Empress Catherine in 1765, with a large experiment farm near St. Petersburg. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, organized in London in 1754, included agriculture in its program. This was followed by an organization formed at Bath, September 8, 1777, which was first called the Society of Bath for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Art, Manufactures, and Commerce. In 1790 its name was changed to the Bath and West of England Society for the purposes above stated. Its first volume of Letters and Papers on Agriculture, etc., was published in 1780. In Scotland the first organization was the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland, begun in 1723, and continued for more than 20 years. Its published record is contained in a volume of Select Transactions issued in 1743. The Highland Society of Scotland, organized at Edinburgh in January, 1785, became a society for all Scotland. A royal charter for this society was obtained in 1787, together with its first parliamentary grant of £3,000, the interest on which was to be spent for essays, inventions, and improvements in agricultural crops, etc. Its first volume of "prize essays and transactions" was published in 1799. The Transactions issued in 1824 record the institution by the society of itinerant lectures on veterinary medicine, illustrated with demonstrations, and of experiments with salt as a fertilizer and in feeding. In Ireland the Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry, Manufactures, and other Useful Arts was founded in 1731 and began in 1737 to publish Weekly Observations. In 1746 it received a grant of £500 a year from the Government, and was incorporated in 1750 as the Royal Dublin Society. In their organization and work the early American agricultural societies were greatly influenced by the examples set by the societies in Great Britain. BRITISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE The British Board of Agriculture was established under an act of Parliament in 1793. Its first president was Sir John Sinclair (1754-1835), who held this office for 13 years. He was a Scotch publicist and lawyer, educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford, and a member of Parliament most of the time from 1780 to 1811. He was very active in the promotion of the agricultural interests of Great Britain, and under his guidance the board of agriculture did much useful work. The functions of the board, as stated by its president in a formal address to it in 1797, were as follows: 1. Collecting, printing, and circulating information on agricultural and other important subjects connected with the internal improvement of the country. 2. Making, under the inspection of the board itself or a committee of its members, useful experiments in agriculture. 3. Submitting to the consideration of Parliament such regulations as may tend to promote the general improvement of the country and recommending to its attention such useful discoveries of an agricultural nature as may be entitled to public reward (63). As one of the first pieces of work the board undertook the preparation of a somewhat elaborate report on "the present agricultural state of the country and the means of its improvement," which involved in part what would now be called an agricultural survey of the different counties of the kingdom. Within four years the reports for some counties were completed and printed. Much interesting material in the form of communications to the board from a variety of sources had been collected and a first volume of these had been printed. EARLY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1744 under the leadership of Franklin, in its earlier years published many articles on agricultural subjects but was developed chiefly as a scientific society. This led to the organization of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, in March, 1785, on the initiative of Judge J. B. Bordley, a Maryland planter, by 23 distinguished citizens of that city (356). Its object was to promote "a greater increase of the products of land within the American States," and for this purpose the society would print memoirs, offer prizes for experiments, improvements, and agricultural essays, and encourage the establishment of other societies throughout the country. Its first president was Samuel Powel, a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, and twice mayor of that city. He was succeeded in 1805 by Judge Richard Peters, who had been a member of the Continental Congress and whose estate of 200 acres was in what is now Fairmount Park. By 1789 the society had honorary members in 13 States (including George Washington, Robert L. Livingston, of New York, and Noah 12931-29- -2 Webster, of Connecticut). Among its resident members were Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Pickering. In 1794 the society endeavored without success to have the Pennsylvania Legislature incorporate "a State society for the promotion of agriculture; connecting with it the education of youth in the knowledge of that most important art, while they are acquiring other useful knowledge suitable for the agricultural citizens of the State" (355). This might be done by endowing professorships in seminaries of learning, for the purpose of teaching the chymical, philosophical, and elementary parts of the theory of agriculture." 66 The formation of county societies was recommended, with county schoolmasters as secretaries, who might have agricultural textbooks and combine teaching of agriculture with other subjects. As soon as funds became available the State society should establish "pattern farms" in different localities, where foreign and domestic plants and seeds should be grown and, when found useful, disseminated through the State. SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES A group of planters interested in the cultivation of indigo began about 1740 to hold meetings which were largely convivial but at which they talked about the indigo industry and means for improving it. In 1755 this club, known as the Winyaw Indigo Society (373), founded a charity school and was incorporated to maintain it. The school flourished for more than a hundred years, was revived after the Civil War, and finally was merged with the Georgetown High School. The South Carolina Society for Promoting and Improving Agriculture and Other Rural Concerns was organized in Charleston August 24, 1785, and 10 years later was incorporated under its present name as the Agricultural Society of South Carolina (372). Among its 12 first officers were a Chief Justice of the United States, a Senator and 4 Members of Congress, 4 governors of South Carolina, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The society prospered and had many members scattered throughout the State. In 1796 Dr. John de le Howe, of the Abbeville district, devised the bulk of his property to the society for an agricultural school on his estate for poor boys and girls, at which manual labor was to be combined with instruction in science related to agriculture. The society resigned this trust to the State, which appointed a board of trustees under whom the school has since been maintained. The Pendleton Farmers' Society was organized in 1815, chartered in 1817, and has its headquarters in Pendleton, Anderson County, S. C., about 3 miles from the Calhoun estate, on which Clemson College is now located (369). John C. Calhoun was a member of the society and when at home attended its meetings. Many other men prominent in the affairs of this region have also been members. The society flourished and about 1828 constructed the brick building in which its meetings have been held ever since. THE KENNEBEC (ME.) AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY An agricultural society was formed at Hallowell, Me. (then Massachusetts), in 1787, probably through the efforts of Charles Vaughan (147). Whether the original agricultural society continued for any |