4 THE PLACE OF RURAL ECONOMY 



century seems to have been a period of active agri- 

 cultural awakening in more senses than one. Not only 

 did it witness the establishment of the only two Uni- 

 versity Professorships in Rural Economy that existed 

 prior to 1890, .but it was at that time also, namely 

 in 1793, ,that the Smithfield Club and the Board of 

 Agriculture were established. The former still exists 

 in unimpaired vigour ; but the old Board of Agriculture, 

 proving unable to resist the necessity for retrenchment 

 consequent on the Napoleonic wars, was suspended in 

 1821, to be revived on an enlarged basis in 1889. It 

 is rather unexpected to find that in the year 1800 the 

 then President of the Board of Agriculture appears to 

 have been unaware of the existence of the Sibthorpian 

 Benefaction ; for we find him deploring the want of 

 Professors of Agriculture in the Universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge, and thus expressing himself: 'Of 

 those educated at each, one-third possibly will have 

 no other employment than to take care of their own 

 estates, and from the want of which early knowledge 

 they are driven to depend on those whose interest it 

 too often is to mislead them. Another third part of 

 our young men educated at universities are allotted to 

 professions in which a knowledge of husbandry would 

 be of infinite utility/ He quotes Columella to show 

 that even in Roman times ' every art was taught 

 methodically, whilst that of Agriculture was neglected. 

 And so to this day/ he goes on to say, 'the same 

 complaint may, with equal truth, be made. Husbandry 

 should form a more leading part of our education at 

 public schools/ He was also a strong advocate of 

 a Government experimental farm with an annual sub- 

 sidy of 500. ' The establishment of this farm is/ he 

 says, ' an essential link in the chain of the future opera- 



