David Low

Who was David Low?

David Low FRSE 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. 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. 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.