EARLY SOCIETIES 



PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND. 



I.— THE SOCIETY OF IMPROVERS. 



There were brave men before Agamemnon ; and there 

 were Associations in Scotland for improvement in agricul- 

 ture before the Highland Society. The earliest Association 

 of this nature is ' The Honourable the Society of Improvers 

 in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland.' This Society 

 was founded at a meeting held at Edinburgh on the 8th 

 June 1723. Its members were certain noblemen and gen- 

 tlemen who were impressed by the low state of the manu- 

 factures in Scotland, and ' how much the right husbandry 

 and improvement of ground is neglected, partly through the 

 want of skill in those who make a profession thereof, and 

 partly through the want of due encouragement for making 

 proper experiments ' or improvements. The history of the 

 Society has been written by one of its members, Mr Robert 

 Maxwell of Arkland, whose book, published in 1743, has 

 the imprimatur of the Society. The Society of Improvers, 

 which numbered over three hundred members, comprised 

 some of the most eminent Scotsmen of the time, and its 

 membership was diffused over the whole country. They 

 included the Dukes of Athole, Hamilton, and Perth, the 

 Marquises of Lothian and Tweeddale, the Earls of Balcarres, 

 Breadalbane, Findlater, Glasgow, Haddington, Hopetoun, 

 Hay, Kinnoul, Kintore, Lauderdale, Morton, Dunmore, 



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