Agricultural societies, functioning as a kind of farmers’ professional organization for the development of agriculture, played a leading role in the development of a civic society in the Slovenian lands. They were formed in Carinthia and Styria in 1764/65, Gorizia in 1765, Carniola in 1767, Trieste as late as 1857 and Istria in 1868. Based on physiocratic principles and in line with state agricultural policy, they printed expert agricultural theoretical advice and – based on their own experimental facilities and the experiences of their active members – also offered practical guidance. The rural clergy played an important role, thanks to their direct contacts with the people and their command of Slovenian. Farmers were also encouraged with financial rewards. The Agricultural Society of Carniola (Kranjska Kmetijska Družba), with its seat in Ljubljana, proposed numerous important projects of wider social and cultural importance: the publication of Linhart’s “History”, the creation of a provincial museum, ethnographic studies – in short, local studies in the broadest meaning of the word as the starting point for national studies. Although most societies complied with the rules of the Carinthian section, the leading role was soon taken over by Styria with its seat in Graz, the first to organize transregional subsidiaries. Not only direct agricultural activities and livestock were promoted, but also beekeeping, the cultivation of silkworms and industrial plants. There was also important support for fire and life insurance. The societies also popularized modern iron tools, the first agricultural machines, chemical agents for the protection of plants and mineral fertilizers. With their initiatives and the actual establishing of agricultural studies within lyceums – such as the Joanneum in Graz (which Styrian Slovenes regarded as their own institution), the Farrier and Livestock School in Ljubljana, agricultural continuation and high schools, agricultural lessons in primary and secondary schools, short or long theoretical and practical courses, and cooperatives – the agricultural societies played a key role in Slovene economic and cultural development.

Since most instruction lectures and courses were held in the Slovenian language, agricultural societies also played an important role in spreading literacy in Slovenia. After the first translations and adaptations of professional German books from German in 1784, original works were written by authors such as Urban Jarnik, Janez Bleiweis and Matija Vertovec, contributing to a Slovenian terminology for fruit trees and vines, biology, soil science, chemistry, etc. National issues also found their way into these writings. In his book on wine-growing, Vinoreja (1844), Vertovec used the recently-coined word “Slovenia” more than ten times – for the first time in printed text. In 1843, the Agricultural Society of Carniola (Kranjska Kmetijska Družba), which was almost entirely Slovenian in composition, started issuing the first all-Slovene newspaper, Kmetijske in rokodelske novice (“Agricultural and handicrafts news”). It was followed by various other professional or also largely political newsletters such as Slovenski gospodar (“Slovene master”), first published in Maribor in 1867. In the closing decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, attempts were made to reorganize the agricultural societies of Gorizia, Styria and Carinthia by language.