The Farmer's Calendar

A prolific writer, farmer, and secretary to the Board of Agriculture, in the closing decades of the eighteenth century Arthur Young (1741–1820) encouraged a generation of farmers to embrace new agricultural technologies. Books deriving from his tours of Britain, examining in detail the agricultural practice of various parts of the country, were immediately successful and remain a valuable historical resource. In 1771 Young produced the first edition of his Farmer's Calendar. Another overnight success, his well-informed and accessible timetable of the farming year went through ten editions in the author's own lifetime. Arranged by month, the chapters provide a valuable account of British arable and livestock farming at the height of the Agrarian Revolution. This edition, from 1804, contains additional notes on agricultural improvements developed in the decades since the book's original publication, as well as a substantial appendix containing clear explanations and practical advice that remain of great interest today.