Arthur Young (agriculturist)

Arthur Young ( born September 11, 1741 Suffolk, England; † April 20, 1820 in London ) was an English agricultural scientist and publicist. He wrote works on agriculture, politics and business. In 1792 he published the travelogue Travels During the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789, Undertaken More Particularly with a View of Ascertaining the Cultivation, Resources, and National Prosperity of the Kingdom of France.

Arthur Young published at age 17, the pamphlet On the War in North America. In 1761 he went to London and published the journal The Universal Museum. He also wrote four novels.

From 1759, he managed the small and indebted estate of his family, from 1767, he was manager of a farm in Essex. He undertook numerous experiments and published the results in 1770 in A Course of Experimental Agriculture. Young toured for study purposes England and Ireland. From 1784 he published the Annals of Agriculture, there appeared 45 volumes. In 1787, he traveled for the first time in France. He described the states before and during the French Revolution. After his return he was appointed Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, where he worked on the acquisition of agricultural data of the English counties. Young was an important patron of agricultural innovations such as seed drilling, improved crop rotation and use of marl as a fertilizer.