Scottish Agricultural Newspapers and Journals and the Industrialisation of Agriculture, 1800–1880

Abstract

During the nineteenth century Scottish agriculture attained a worldwide reputation for its excellence. Innovations were made and introduced: the enclosure of fields, which had gathered speed during the late eighteenth century, continued to advance; the old rigs were levelled and underground tile drainage was laid; further land was reclaimed and brought under cultivation; new tools and implements were developed; agricultural engineering developed into an increasingly important industry; new methods of power, such as steam, were applied to agriculture; remote areas gained access to a range of raw materials, goods, markets and specialised agricultural districts started to emerge. Increasingly, agriculture became industrialised. Central to this industrialisation was the diffusion of the knowledge of agricultural innovations and practices. Agricultural historians such as Stuart McDonald have identified that this diffusion took place through a number of channels: personal contacts, farmers' clubs and agricultural societies, apprenticeships, letters and printed matter such as newspapers and journals. Of these, newspapers and journals had an increasingly important role to play in the dissemination of knowledge. That position has been asserted by James A. Scott Watson and May Elliot Hobbs, who note that the agricultural press of the nineteenth century became the chief means for the diffusion of information and exchange of ideas.