The Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture carried out experimental work in agriculture and animal breeding in south-east Scotland.
The college had premises at George Square, Edinburgh, which were enlarged in 1904 to a design by Thomas Purves Marwick architects. It was one of ten central institutions noted as of 1906 providing technical instruction and sound scientific instruction meeting the "continuation class code" set of regulations drawn up in 1901. The list also included the West of Scotland Agricultural College and the Aberdeen and North of Scotland College of Agriculture.
A newspaper report from October 1907 records that a "gathering of about 60 gentlemen attended at the experimental ground" of the college at Pinkie Hill Farm, Inveresk, to witness the "final inspection for the season of the results of the potato trials". In 70 plots, 48 varieties of potatoes had been tested to find the effects of "spraying, artificial manuring, cut sets versus whole sets, and planting at different distances apart."
In 1913 the college and the University of Edinburgh formed a Joint Committee on Research in Animal Breeding which led on to research in genetics.
In 1990 the Scottish Agricultural College the East of Scotland College of Agriculture was merged with the West of Scotland Agricultural College based in Auchincruive, Ayr, and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture based in Aberdeen into the new corporate identity of the Scottish Agricultural College.