Technology Adaptation: Agricultural Revolution in 17th–19th-Century Britain 267farmer were central. Thus in 1772 the former offered prizes to determine the value
of carrots, cabbages, turnips and potatoes for fattening livestock. Prizes encour-
aged experimentation, though they did not always resolve an issue. On sowing
lucerne by broadcast or by drilling, Young commented ‘as a sufficient number of
experiments has not been published to prove which of these methods is most
advantageous, the Society very judiciously leaves it to the cultivator’s private judge-
ment’ (Young, 1767). The HAS may have been more effective in extension as it
strongly promoted local associations. In Scotland 60 associations were established
by members (Handley, 1963). Some were at village level: the Lunen & Vinney
Farming Society of Dunnichen village was established by George Dempster, mem-
bership rose to 80, and the society brought yellow turnips and drilling of wheat to
their locality. The final meeting was held in 1814, when Dempster was 80 years of
age. The HAS itself survived because of the patronage of Sir John Sinclair, chair-
man of the Board of Agriculture, who gave them an annual grant of £800 per year,
so helping them obtain a Royal Charter.
Local societies also grew rapidly in England. First were the Manchester, Nor-
folk, Bath & West and Sussex in the 1760s and 1770s, but by 1820 the total had
grown to 50, and by 1840 to more than 400 (Goddard, 1989). The principal
interest was again the award of prizes, usually at local shows and typically for new
and/or high quality livestock, crops and machines. The Bath & West was particu-
larly innovative, purchasing land to set up on-farm trials for new practices. Dur-
ing the 1830s Farmers’ Clubs became popular in the promotion of improvements
and diffusion of information (Fitzgerald, 1968; Goddard, 1989). These clubs
held regular discussion meetings, established libraries and arranged visits to well-
known farms.
The establishment of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) in
1838 marked the end of this agricultural revolution in internal resource use. As I
shall discuss below, this society signalled the end of an era in which farmers’ knowl-
edge was accepted as best. From the 1840s, scientists off the farm gradually dis-
placed farmers as technology generators, diffusers and experimenters.
Open days and fairs
Farmer groups also held occasional open days to publicize new farming practices
and breeds of livestock. The most well-known meetings of this period were the
‘sheep shearings’ of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas Coke, at which there were
often several hundred people present (Young, 1799, 1803, 1808). Of the 1799
open day at Bedford’s Woburn farm, Young said ‘it was the greatest meeting of the
kind ever seen in England ... A great assemblage of farmers, breeders and graziers
from every part of the kingdom ... in which the conversation was entirely agricul-
tural’ (Young, 1799). The open days at Coke’s farm at Holkham ran annually
between 1778 and 1821. Prizes were awarded for the best agricultural implements
and livestock, information was exchanged on cultivation techniques and the per-
formance of new crops, and ploughing matches were held. Farmers were also able