GEOLOGISTS JOHN FAREY AND WILLIAM SMITH AWARDED SILVER MEDALS FOR AGRICULTURE

Abstract

In 1805 John Farey and William Smith, received silver medals for agriculture from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, in recognition of work they had carried out on the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn. Today we recognise these men as leading geologists of their time, but Farey's medal was awarded for experiments which recorded the growth of timber trees in Brown's Wood over a sixteen-year period and William Smith's for turning Prisley Bog into a water meadow. While today these agricultural endeavours may appear unrelated to geology, this paper demonstrates how an increasing understanding of the substratum became an important aspect of agriculture, and how the offer of premiums for agriculture indirectly contributed to advancing the young science of geology.