THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 273 



farmers into line with those who had made the most of what 

 progress there had been, that the Royal Society was founded 

 in 1838, in imitation of the Highland Society, but also owing 

 to the realization of the great benefits conferred on farming 

 during the last half-century by the exertions of Agricultural 

 Societies, the Smithfield Club Shows having especially aided 

 the breeding of live stock. 



Writing on the subject of the Society, Mr. Handley ^ spoke 

 of the wretched modes of farming still to be seen in the 

 country, especially in the case of arable land, though there 

 had been a marked improvement in the breeding of stock. 

 Prejudice, as ever, was rampant. Bone manure, though in 

 the previous twenty years it had worked wonders, was in many 

 parts unused. It was felt that what the English farmer 

 needed was 'practice with science'. The first President of 

 the Society was Earl Spencer, and it at once set vigorously to 

 work, recommending prizes for essays on twenty-four subjects, 

 some of which are in the first volume of the Society's Journal. 

 Prizes were also offered for the best drainjng-plough, the best 

 implement for crushing gorse, for a ploughing match to be 

 held at the first country meeting of the Society fixed at 

 Oxford in 1839, for the best cultivated farm in Oxfordshire 

 and the adjacent counties, and for the invention of any new 

 agricultural implement. 



In 1840 the Society was granted a charter under the title 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and its career 

 since then has been one of continued usefulness, and forms 

 a prominent feature in the agricultural history of the times. 



In 1839 2 the first country meeting of the Society was 

 held at Oxford, and its 247 entries of live stock and 54 of 

 implements were described as constituting a show of un- 

 precedented magnitude. According to BelVs Weekly Mes- 

 senger for July 22, 1839, the show for some time had been 

 the all - absorbing topic of conversation not only among 



1 R. A. S. E. Journal, 1890, pp. i sq. ^ Ibid., 1894, pp. 205 sq. 



