The provision of agricultural advice in the Province of New Brunswick was present in the form of one-on-one tutoring among the native inhabitants for several centuries, well before Europeans set foot on North American soil. The subject of their conversations may have pertained to medicinal plants, native berries and greens. However, records may be traced back to the year 1604, when an expedition, lead by DeMont, spent some time on a small island at the mouth of the Saint-Croix River, in the Bay of Fundy. The explorer was accompanied by Louis Hebert, a pharmacist, who was versed in the cultivation of soil and in advising settlers on farming methods.

In 1837, James Robb came to King's College, Fredericton as a lecturer in Chemistry and Natural Sciences. Robb had wide acquaintance with scientific men in Europe including the Sorbonne where he studied after receiving a degree in medicine at the University of Edinburgh. To teach effectively in New Brunswick, he felt it was necessary to gain a wide knowledge of the natural history of the province. To accomplish this he set out almost immediately after arrival, on a journey of several hundred miles on foot and by canoe through the great wilderness of New Brunswick. He was the first person to assemble a geological, mineralogical and botanical collection of provincial resources.

In the 1840's, the government requested an examination of provincial agriculture by a Scottish scientist, J.F.W. Johnston. Robb accompanied Johnston on a 2,000 mile journey of the province and contributed a geological map. He was critical of the Johnston report, because it was too optimistic. He responded by engaging in a task of founding the New Brunswick Society of Encouragement of Agriculture, Home Manufacturers and Commerce. He was the first president of this Society and served as corresponding secretary for several years. In this capacity he encouraged farmers all over the province through dissemination of accurate scientific knowledge. He projected a philosophy that farming was the true foundation of civil society and that virtue is to be realized in a life close to the soil. He persevered with enlightened aims and was the principal mover in the establishment of the provincial department of agriculture, first in the form of a board to which he acted as secretary, and to which he submitted his only report, dated 1861, the year of his death.

Louis Hebert was a person who pursued excellence in providing responsible and enthusiastic leadership in assisting early New Brunswick settlers to be successful in providing a food supply. In a much later era, James Robb strove to provide an organized system for promoting and utilizing the products of professional pursuit for use in the development of commercial agriculture.