Arthur Young, Tours in England and Wales, selected from the Annals of Agriculture
Arthur Young was born in 1741, the son of a Suffolk clergyman. He moved to London in 1761 and worked as a writer, publishing four novels. He moved back to Suffolk on his father's death on 1759. In 1767 he became the manager of a farm in Essex and experimented with new methods, publishing the results as A Course of Experimental Agriculture (1770). He became a tireless propagandist for agricultural improvement and spent most of his life travelling in England, Wales, Ireland and France. His journeys were the basis for a series of books describing changes in both agriculture and wider social and political developments. He edited the Annals of Agriculture, publishing 45 volumes between 1784 and 1809 promoting new farming methods. In 1793 the government created the Board of Agriculture as a response to the war with France which seemed to threaten Britain's food supplies. Young became its secretary, directing further major agricultural surveys. He died in 1820.