October 24, 1912] 



NATURE 



237 



and waite for moi^e discoveries of some thing I scarce 

 know wliat to name it, which lies yet in obscurity, 

 but I will call it the Improvement of the Improver." 



Were we not now concerned with the spirit rather 

 than with the form of the improvement, an interest- 

 ing parallel might be drawn between the topics which 

 Blith considers of greatest importance and those 

 which to-day are engaging attention. In his epistle 

 to the society, for example, there is an appeal to the 

 learned to give their attention to applied science. 

 Discussing the progress of the Dutch, Blith deplores 

 that policy which Englishmen afterwards termed 

 laisscr faire. He says ; " Our niceness in not nursing 

 the fruits of our own bowells hath given them the 

 opportunity to Improve our native commodities to the 

 advance of their Manufacturidge to our shame, their 

 praise " ; then addressing- members of the universities 

 he adds, " I speak to wise men whom I would have 

 more publique men. . . . Let me entreat you for the 

 Peoples and your own posterity sake . . . put your 

 shoulders to the work, greater things remaine and 

 larger Improvements are yet to be discovered." 



The earnest advocacy of Blith, the essays of "my 

 good friend Mr. Samuell Hartleps," and the energy 

 of landowners like Sir Richard Weston, led to a de- 

 mand for the records of experiments, and in 1659 

 there was issued the first series of abstracts of agri- 

 cultural experiments with which I am acquainted, 

 under the title "Adam out of Eden." The experi- 

 ments recorded by the author, Ad. Speed, are of con- 

 siderable interest ; but I mention him for another 

 reason. He appears to have made a living by pro- 

 pounding improvements of an imaginary character. 

 He wrote tracts for noblemen and others, containing 

 estimates of the profits to be gained by adopting new 

 methods. Blith scathingly refers to him as " Mr. 

 Speed that superlative Improver," and remarks that 

 so long as his books were private "I could bear it, 

 and suffer wiser than myself to bee fooled because I 

 was not wise enough as to beware of him, but now 

 that they come to be sold in the Stationers' Shops, 

 and spread about the country, to deceive, and beguile 

 the Nation, I cannot forbear." This was written in 

 1652; as my edition of " .\dam out of Eden" is dated 

 1650, it is clear that the nation continued to be "be- 

 guiled " for a considerable period by this particular 

 Adam, the forerunner of a numerous family, ^^'hen- 

 ever there is a revival of interest in agriculture he 

 flourishes ; the new manure, the ravaging insect, the 

 blighting fungus, all serve to bring "Adam out of 

 Eden," and so long as an interested and gullible 

 public exists, "that superlative Improver JMr. Speed" 

 will be found among us. The pamphlet and the 

 stationers' shop have become antiquated; the .\dam 

 of to-day has other methods, which I will not venture 

 to particularise, .'\fter all, it is a healthv sign. It 

 is only when the public thirst is deep that .Adam gets 

 his chance, and, like Blith, we must resign ourselves 

 now and again to "bee fooled," for is it not one of 

 the methods by which the improver is improved? 



Walter Blith 's appeal for the assistance of the 

 learned did not long remain unanswered. At the 

 time his "English Improver Improved" was pub- 

 lished a society of scientific men had alreadv been 

 formed in London, and ten years later this society 

 first received the name Royal Societv, at the sugges- 

 tion of John Evelyn. On October 15, 1662, Evelyn's 

 "Discourse on Forest Trees" was presented to the 

 society. Five years later, when the " Svlva " was 

 published, th^ author in the preface tells us that the 

 Royal -Society was then doing much for husbandry. 



John Evclvn was one of the prominent members of 

 the Royal Societv, and he seems to have taken a 

 leading part in defending it against the attacks to 

 XO. 2243, VOL. 90] 



which, in the first years of its existence, it was sub- 

 jected. With much satisfaction he points out, in 

 dedicating the second edition of the " Sylva " to King 

 Charles II., that his essay and the work of the Royal 

 Society have in the past eight years resulted in the 

 planting of more than two million timber trees, and 

 he adds that he has preser\-ed the testimonials he has 

 received with the more care " because they are Testi- 

 monials from so many honourable Persons, of the 

 Benefit they have receiv'd from the Endeavours of 

 the Royal Society, which now adayes passes through 

 so many Censures." 



With the exception of the " Societies of Learning 

 and Gallantry " of the " Houses of Court and L ni- 

 versities" addressed by Blith, the Royal Society 15 

 the earliest to whicli any influence on agriculture 

 may be traced, and it is certainly the first society 

 which definitely included the improvement of agri- 

 culture as coming wdthin its scope. It appears to 

 have depended in no small degree for its early 

 successes on the public interest aroused by the 

 writings of Evelyn and Houghton, and there is 

 evidence that the society g-ave much attention to 

 agriculture during the second half of the seventeenth 

 century, and that its patronage was much valued. 



Evelyn's " Pomona," in which he discourses of fruit 

 trees and cider, gives an interesting glimpse of some 

 of the early activities of the Royal Society, for the 

 work itself is based chiefly on contributions by 

 members of the society to its "well furnish' d 

 Registers, and Cimelia." Evelyn is careful to point 

 out that these contributions were original papers, and 

 that it was not the design of the society to "accumu- 

 late repetitions where they can be avoided." These 

 new observations being in the society's esteem "and 

 according to mv Lord Bacon's" preferable even when 

 "rude and imperfect draughts" than commonplaces 

 " adorn'd with more pomp." Evelyn himself was net 

 practically acquainted with cider-making, and his own 

 interest in the subject, like that of the majority of 

 his fellow-members, was Baconian — i.e. it consisted 

 in a search for "grounded conclusions and profitable 

 inventions and discoveries." 



In other ways the members of the Royal Society 

 encouraged one another in making improvements ; 

 thus when in 1666 Evelyn's "worthy friend" Mr. 

 Hake went on a journey, he returned carrying with 

 him — for eight hundred miles — some grafts for 

 Evelyn, together with a "taste of the most super- 

 lative perrj'^the world certainly produces." It was by 

 means such as these, and by a policy which approved 

 "plainness and usefulness" ra'ther than "niceriess 

 and curiosity," that the newly-formed Royal Society 

 commended itself to the country. 



It is indeed probable that agricultural questions 

 occupied much rnore of the attention of the Royal 

 Society in the earlier years of its existence than the 

 printed records suggest; we are told, for example, 

 by the Scottish improver, "-A. Lover of his Country," 

 that one of its most illustrious members, Sir Robert 

 Boyle, was an enthusiastic agriculturist ; he says : 

 " I had the Honour to be known to that excellent 

 Person and oft in his Company. He was the greatest 

 Lover of Agriculture I ever knew, and I wonder he 

 never wrote of it. I heard him say, it was a Pitv 

 there was not Seminaries of that, the most useful, 

 and except Pasturage, the most ancient of all 

 Sciences." 



Not onlv were agriculturists attracted by the prac- 

 tical investigations of the Royal Society, but 

 impressed by the value of its methods and organisa- 

 tion, and Worlidge suggests that nothing would 

 more conduce to improving agriculture than the con- 

 stitution of subordinate provincial societies "whose 



