Madeiran Agricultural Society

The attempt to found an association to protect and develop Madeiran agriculture only became a reality during the administration of Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro as civil governor of this district. Earlier efforts had always proved fruitless, and after that benevolent governor left Madeira the association led a very precarious existence, even ceasing to fulfil the obligations imposed on it.

As early as 1790 an attempt had been made here to establish an association of this kind, whose chief promoter at the time was Dr João Pedro de Freitas Drumond.

The formal inauguration of the Madeiran Agricultural Society (Sociedade Agrícola Madeirense) took place on 21 November 1849, attended by Prince Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg, and by all the authorities and most prominent figures of our community. As can be seen in the Epocha Administrativa, the district’s highest authority gave the new association the most valuable support, recommending it most earnestly to all the authorities, to the administrative bodies and to the government of mainland Portugal.

The board (mesa) elected at that meeting drew up the statutes, which were approved by royal decree (alvará régio) of 30 August 1850. It entered into communication with other similar associations to guide its work better, and began publishing a newspaper entitled O Agricultor Madeirense, which was a reliable guide for farmers and warmly defended their interests. It acquired seeds, undertook the study and trial of new crops, dealt with livestock breeding, artificial pastures, the improvement of breeds, etc., and concerned itself with many matters of closest interest to the agriculture of this district. The reports of the society’s directorate and of its sub-committees, charged with studying the various questions most closely bound up with agriculture, reveal its zeal and interest in the affairs of this island. They give us eloquent testimony of what an association moved by the same aims and the same desires could achieve here.

The Sociedade Agrícola functioned regularly until 1858, having been re-established on different foundations in 1855. It suspended its sessions in 1860, and then functioned until 1864. It held a session in 1867 in order to consult the government on the introduction of wine from Portugal into Madeira, and was reorganised on 29 November 1876. From then until 1880, however, when it was finally dissolved, its work came to nothing.