a short history of agricultural education and research

1826 Re-named the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.1923 The Institute of Animal Pathology was established at the College.1931 The Institute of Animal Pathology was bought under the ARC umbrella.1949 It became part of the University of London (see 1898) as the RoyalVeterinary College.1793 Board of AgricultureThis first board was established to prepare a county by county survey on the stateof agriculture. It aimed to foster innovation in farming and stimulate agriculturaldevelopment although was hampered from the start by erroneous suspicions inthe farming world that it was a branch of government. In fact, it receivedrelatively little public funding and still less interest. Its first president and chiefarchitect was John Sinclair (1754-1835), who introduced the word ‘statistics’into the English language, in his vast, pioneering work, Statistical Account ofScotland.The main achievement of the Board was the county surveys and suggestedimprovements published as General Views.1822 The Board was disbanded and the role picked up by the RoyalAgricultural Society (see 1838) as Sir John Sinclair and others had bynow decided that a private institution would be more effective than aquasi-governmental body.1793 Canterbury Agricultural SocietyLater the Canterbury Farmers’ Club, this organisation worked particularly closelywith Wye College (see 1881), linking research with the farming community.1796 University of OxfordThe Sibthorpian Chair of Rural Economy was established under the will ofbotanist John Sibthorp (1758-1796) who had held the Sheridan chair of Botanyand Oxford, as had his father before him, Sir Humphrey Waldo Sibthorp (1713-1797). The position is currently the Sibthorpian Professorship of Plant Science.1907 A full time professor of agriculture was appointed although agriculture(along with forestry) continued to be viewed as a craft, rather than anacademic subject.1913 The Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics was establishedunder the directorship, until 1945, of Charles Stewart Orwin (1876-1955), adviser from 1905 to the hop farm of Guiness where hedeveloped farm management accounting systems. Prior to this Oxfordpost he had been land agent for the Turnor estate in Lincolnshire. In the1924-25 Rural Report of the Liberal Land Committee, he expressedradical views calling for the state ownership of all agricultural land,17