716 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION M. 
society of scientific men had already been formed in London, and ten years later 
this society first received the name Royal Society, at the suggestion of John Evelyn. 
On October 15, 1662, Evelyn’s ‘ Discourse on Forest Trees’ was presented to the 
Society. Five years later, when the ‘Sylva’ was published, the author in the 
preface tells us that the Royal Society was then doing much for husbandry. 
Evelyn records his own experience in studying agriculture and forestry, how he 
had read all the old authors and got but little good from his studies, and he 
congratulates his countrymen that ‘the World is now advis’d and (blessed be 
God) redeemed from that base and servile submission of our noblest Faculties 
to their blind 7'raditions.’ Again, referring to the absence of a ‘compleat System 
of Agriculture, which as yet seems a desiderata,’ he says: ‘It is (I assure you) 
what is one of the Principal Designs of the Royal Society ; not in this Particular 
only, but through all the Liberal and more useful Arts; and for which (in the 
estimation of all equal Judyes) it will merit the greatest of Hncouragements ; that 
so, at last, what the learned Columella has wittily reproach’d, and complained of, 
as a defect in that Age of his, concerning Agriculture in general, and is applicable 
here, may attain its desired Remedy and Consummation in This of Ours.’ He 
then quotes Columella’s remarks about the Schools of Rhetoric, Geometry, and 
Music, and the absence of agricultural professors and scholars, which I have 
already read. 
John Evelyn was one of the prominent members of the Royal Society, and he 
seems to have taken a leading part in defending it against the attacks to which, 
in the first years of its existence, it was subjected. 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 over two million timber-trees, and he adds that he has 
preserved the testimonials he has received with the more care ‘ because they are 
Testimonials 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 Universities’ addressed by Blith, the Royal Society is the earliest 
to which any influence on agriculture may be traced, and it is certainly the first 
society which definitely included the improvement of agriculture as coming within 
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 gave much attention to agriculture during the second 
half of the seventeenth century, and that its patronage was much valued. The 
immediate influence of the Royal Society may be traced in Worlidge’s ‘ Systema 
Agriculture.’ In my edition (the third, 1681), Worlidge makes a strong plea for 
improving agriculture ; he quotes at length from ancient writers to prove the esteem 
in which the art was held by them, and then says: ‘ Also a most evident demon- 
stration and sure Argument of the Utility, Pleasure and Excellency of this Branch 
of Natural Philosophy, is the principal care the Royal and Most Illustrious 
Society take for the advancement thereof, and for the discovery of its choicest and 
rarest secrets.’ He also refers with special approbation to the work of Evelyn, 
not only in promoting forestry, but in improving the making of ‘ that incomparable 
Liquor Cider.’ 
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 ‘accumulate repetitions where they can be avoided’; these new 
observations being in the Society’s esteem ‘and according to my Lord Bacon’s’ 
preferable even when ‘ rude and imperfect draughts’ than commonplaces ‘ adorn’d 
with more pomp.’ Evelyn himself was not 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.’ Possibly, too, the badness of the 
Trench wines of the period had some share in directing the attention of the 
Fellows of the Roval Society to cider, for as early as January 28, 1662, they 
listened to a discourse on the Adulteration of Wine, by Dr. Charleton, which so 
