David Low (agriculturalist)

The grave of David Low, Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh

David Low FRSE (1786– January 1859) was a Scottish agriculturalist.

Low, eldest son of Alexander Low, land-agent, of Laws, Berwickshire, was born in Berwickshire in 1786, and educated at Perth Academy and the University of Edinburgh.^[1] He assisted his father on his farms, and soon showed special aptitude as a land-agent and valuer.

In 1817 he published Observations on the Present State of Landed Property, and on the Prospects of the Landholder and the Farmer, in which was discussed the agricultural embarrassment caused by the sudden fall of prices on the cessation of the war. In 1825 he settled in Edinburgh, and in the following year at his suggestion the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture was established, which he edited from 1828 to 1832.

On the death of Professor Andrew Coventry in 1831 Low was appointed professor of agriculture in the University of Edinburgh (1831–54). His first step was to urge on the government the necessity of forming an agricultural museum. The Chancellor of the Exchequer consented in 1833 to allow £300 a year for that purpose. Low contributed collections of his own, and employed William Shiels, R.S.A., to travel, taking portraits of the best specimens of different breeds of animals. Altogether £3,000 were expended on the museum, of which £1,500 came from the government, £300 from the Reid fund, and the rest from the professor's private resources. The museum led to increased attendance in the class of agriculture, which numbered from seventy to ninety students.

Low was also much devoted to chemistry, and had a private laboratory. In 1842 he brought out a splendid work in two volumes, quarto, on The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands, with coloured plates. This was translated for the French government immediately on its appearance.

Low resigned his chair in 1854, and died at Mayfield, Edinburgh, on 7 January 1859, and was interred at Warriston Cemetery. The grave lies on the southern edge of the original cemetery, backing onto the former railway, now a cycle path. It is very large but currently (2014) very overgrown.

Works

Besides the works already mentioned, Low was the author of:

• Elements of Practical Agriculture, 1834 (4th edn. 1843; translated into French and German)
• The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands, London, 1842
• On Landed Property and the Economy of Estates, 1844
• An Inquiry into the Nature of the Simple Bodies of Chemistry, 1844 (3rd edn. 1856)
• Appeal to the Common Sense of the Country regarding the Condition of the Industrious Classes, 1850

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Low, David (1786-1859)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.