YOUNG, AltTliUlt, an eminent writer on agriculture, was born Sept. 7, 1741, and edu catedat Lavenham in Suffolk. In 1758 he was apprenticed by his father, a doctor of divinity and clergyman of the Church of England, to a mercantile house in Lynn. But Young had no liking for business, and devoted much of his attention to literature. On his father's death, in 1759, be undertook the management of a smala farm of which his mother had a lease. Six years afterward he became a farmer on his own account in Essex. He seems, at the same time, to have acted as a parliamentary reporter; and as be only saw his farm from Saturday till Monday, it need not be wondered that he found it unprofitable. At the end of five years he gave £100 to a practical farmer to take the lease off his hands. In the mean time, however, he had made notes of the results of numerous experiments on his farm, which he afterward published, under the title of A Course of Experimental Agriculture. His first successful book wasA Tour through the Southern Counties of England, which was followed by other works describing the state of agriculture in various parts of England and in Ireland. The enthusiasm of Young and his lively style made his writings popular, and by them the knowledge of many judicious practices, confined to one locality, was spread throughout the whole empire.
In 1784 Young began the publication of the Annals of Agriculture, of which 45 vols. 8vo were published. Three years later he was invited by count de in Rochefoucauld to make a tour in the south of France. What he saw induced him to undertake a series of tours in France, through a great part of which he traveled leisurely on horseback. The result was his most important work, The Agricultural Survey of Prance, The author did not confine his attention to agriculture, but described the social and political con of the people in a lively and truthful manner, and his work has become, in conse •quence, the most reliable source of information regarding the state of France just before the revolution. In 1801 the French directory showed the value attached to the writings of Young by ordering the whole of his agricultural works to be translated into French. They were published at Paris, in 20 vols. 8vo, under the title of Le Cultivateur Anglais. In 1808 Young received a gold medal from the English board of agriculture, "for long and faithful services in agriculture." He died April 12; 1820.