When you look back at the rapid agricultural progress of the 19th and 20th Centuries, stop and think how many things were influenced along the way by the RASE:

1840	RASE was granted its Royal Charter by HRH Queen Victoria
1845	Formation of the Royal Agricultural College
1866	Recommendations lead to the introduction of Cattle Diseases Prevention Act
1870s	Creation of the country’s first experimental research stations
1895	Milk quality assessment introduced at the Royal Show – the precursor of modern milk recording schemes
1899	National examination board established to promote agricultural education – the origins of the National Diploma in Agriculture and the model of today’s specialist exams
1920	Tractor trials established the tractor in general farm use
1944	Conference on post war farming shapes the 1947 Agriculture Act
1973	Formation of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust
1975	Formation of the NAC Housing Association (now the Rural Housing Trust
1989	British Food and Farming Year
1990	Established Linking Environment & Farming (LEAF)
2001	Established Farming & Countryside Education (FACE)

In 1838 a group of individuals with interests in agriculture - journalists, landowners and enthusiasts - had become convinced that science would help English agriculture become more productive and meet the growing food requirements of a booming population. They founded the RASE with this aim; though its attainment has seen remarkable changes of fortune over the years.

After the Napoleonic wars, popular opinion turned against ‘new fangled nonsense’; but the Society’s Journal and growing commercial prosperity rekindled enthusiasm for innovation with the early Victorians. Change followed, with rapid advances in agriculture and controversies and problems for the Society.

Then there was the agricultural depression to contend with where successive governments relied on cheap imports at the expense of home production in the 1930’s.

In the post-war revolution the Society helped research and development in agriculture to take off once again; the industry looked forward with new initiatives and opportunities.