Scotland in 1700 was, in European terms, backward in the study of agronomy, but in the course of the eighteenth century the ‘improvers’ became a leading force in the study and practice of agricultural change. Nevertheless, over the course of the century they changed significantly: the early Honourable Society of Improvers, aristocrat-led and amateurish, gave way to a broader-based movement incorporating the rural middle-class, especially clergy and successful farmers, diffusing information through locally-based reports, magazines and societies. While unable to influence the course of agrarian change in the adverse demand circumstances before 1760, the improvers arguably had a profound impact on the response of the supply side between 1760 and 1820. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the growth of literature on agricultural improvement in the long eighteenth century, to look at its changing character, to form a judgement as to whom the improvers were, and to assess their impact.
The Mid-Eighteenth-Century Georgic and Agricultural Improvement
