Young, Arthur

▪ English writer

born Sept. 11, 1741, London, Eng.

died April 20, 1820, London

      prolific English writer on agriculture, politics, and economics. Besides his books on agricultural subjects, he was the author of the famous Travels in France (or 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; 1792). The book is especially valued for its vivid descriptions of the French Revolution and of the conditions that produced it.

      The son of a rector, Young was initially employed in a mercantile house at King's Lynn, Norfolk, but showed no taste for commerce. When he was only 17 years old he published the pamphlet On the War in North America, and in 1761 he went to London to start a periodical, The Universal Museum. He also wrote four novels during this period.

      After his father's death in 1759, his mother gave him the direction of the family estate, but the property was small and encumbered with debt. In 1767 he undertook on his own account the management of a farm in Essex. He engaged in various experiments and embodied the results in A Course of Experimental Agriculture (1770). Though Young's early farming experiments were, in general, unsuccessful, he thus acquired a solid knowledge of agriculture. He had already begun a series of journeys through England and Wales and gave an account of his observations in several books that appeared from 1768 to 1770, including A Six Weeks Tour Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales. He said that these books contained the only extant information relative to the agricultural rentals, produce, and livestock of England that was founded on actual examination. The books were favourably received, being translated into most European languages by 1792.

      He published in 1768 The Farmer's Letters to the People of England, in 1771 The Farmer's Calendar, which went through a great number of editions, and in 1774 his Political Arithmetic, which was widely translated. He made tours of Ireland from 1776 to 1778, publishing his A Tour in Ireland in 1780. In 1784 he began the publication of the Annals of Agriculture, which was continued for 45 volumes; this periodical had many contributors, among whom was George III, writing under the nom de plume of “Ralph Robinson.”

      Young's first visit to France was made in 1787. Traversing that country in every direction just before and during the first movements of the Revolution, he gave valuable accounts of the condition of the people and the conduct of public affairs at that critical juncture. The Travels in France appeared in two volumes in 1792. On his return home he was appointed secretary of the British government's newly created Board of Agriculture, where he gave valuable assistance in the collection and preparation of agricultural surveys of the English counties. His last years were spent in reclusion and were characterized by melancholy and growing religious fervour.

      Though not a particularly successful farmer himself, Young was an important propagandist for the progressive agricultural practices of his time. He advocated such innovations as the seed drill, improved crop rotations, and the use of marl as fertilizer. He advocated the enclosure of open fields and the settlement of the indigent on newly enclosed waste agricultural lands. His many books on agriculture were highly influential in their day.

Additional Reading

The standard biography is John G. Gazley, The Life of Arthur Young, 1741–1820 (1973).

* * *