INTRODUCTION 5 



valuable work on behalf of Agriculture. The Highland 

 Agricultural Society was instituted in 1784, the Holderness 

 Agricultural Society in 1795, and the Smithfield Club in 1798. 



By far the most important of all these early movements 

 was the establishment of the Board of Agriculture in 1793.* 

 The scheme originated with Sir John Sinclair, who urged it 

 upon Pitt for some time before the Premier gave his consent- 

 The Board was instituted by charter, which declared it " to 

 be for ever thereafter a body politic and complete." It was riot 

 a Government Department, though Parliament gave it some 

 sort of recognition and an annual grant of 3000. Sinclair 

 was its first President, and Arthur Young Secretary, under 

 whose guidance much valuable work was done for agriculture, 

 but it came to an end in 1822, wiien all the records and docu- 

 ments were sent to the Tower. There must be a mass of 

 useful information among those papers, but their present 

 whereabouts is unknown. In 1821 the Board arranged the 

 first National Agricultural Show at Aldridge's. It is worthy 

 of note, too, that it recommended the Allotment system, and 

 that Sir John Sinclair was an advocate of " three acres and 

 a cow." 



About the year 1836 a movement was started for promoting 

 Farmers' Clubs, and reports of these were published in the 

 Farmer's Magazine in the early 'forties. The same authority 

 refers to an organisation called " The New Central Agricul- 

 tural Association," started about the year 1838, and amongst 

 others mentioned in that magazine were Asbocking (Essex) 

 in 1838 ; Arundel, Braintree and Booking, 1840 ; Burton- 

 on-Trent, Bromsgrove, Botley and South Hants, 1844 ; 

 Collingham, 1840 ; Croydon, Dalton (Lanes), Dorking, 

 Exminster, Framlingham, 1839 ; Fairford, 1840 ; Grove 

 Ferry (Kent), Guildford, Hadleigh, 1840 ; Harleston, 1838 ;f 



* R.A.S.E. Journal, 1896. Hansard XXX., 949-53. 



\ The Harleston Farmers' Club held its first regular meeting on 9th 

 February, 1838. It claims to have been the second Club started for 

 discussing methods of Agriculture, and to have commenced the agita- 

 tion in favour of Tenant Right. On 14th June, 1843, it rescinded 

 the rule excluding discussion on political matters, but still forbade 

 debate on those of a party nature. It published a volume about 1850 

 giving a summary of its work for 1 2 years. 



