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Jan himself also studied biology at the University of Groningen, but he soon
found that his interests lay elsewhere. The abstract treatises discussed in the
physiology classes, plant taxonomy and anatomy all left him cold. It was not
until the lectures on rural economy that Jan’s interest was truly aroused, when
Professor Herman van Hall explained the relationship between the productivity
of different agricultural soils and the different tillage methods. He realized
then that what fascinated him was not the life of a plant, but what the farmer
did with it; not the creatures themselves, but their effect on the harvest.
At some point during his studies in Groningen, Ritzema Bos evidently decided
to use his knowledge of biology for the benefi t of agriculture. That he became
a teacher after graduating was the fi rst, logical step in this direction.
His career as a teacher at the hbs (modern grammar school or Higher
Burgher School) with agriculture in Groningen was short-lived (1869-1871). In
1870, the centre of agriculture education appeared set to shift to Warffum,
where the famous German agriculturalist Dr Otto Pitsch had taken up a teaching
position, and Ritzema Bos decided to move too, accepting a post in the
three-year agriculture course that had just been started at Warffum’s hbs. But
when a similar course was launched in Wageningen, in 1873, and Otto Pitsch
moved from the rural setting of Warffum to the almost equally rural Wageningen,
Ritzema Bos too left the surroundings of his parental home and accepted
a post at the hbs with agriculture – the School of Agriculture – in Wageningen.
The school in Warffum subsequently foundered for lack of staff, just as the
school in Groningen had been compelled to close its doors when the one in
Warffum had opened. Agriculture education was still a luxury at this stage.
Not until the school opened in Wageningen did agriculture education fi nally
begin to fl ourish, partly as a result of the government package of information,
education and research measures. In 1876, the State assumed responsibility for
it; the result was a State School of Agriculture with a fairly low admission
threshold, where everyone who had completed three years of hbs secondary
schooling could enrol to study for two or three years in one of the six available
branches of study. 5 One reorganization after another ensued, and in just under
5 1. Dutch agriculture; 2. Colonial agriculture; 3. Dutch silviculture; 4. Colonial silviculture; 5. Agricultural
chemistry and technology; and 6. Horticulture. Students staying on for a fourth year could
specialize in one of sixteen fi elds: political economics; mathematics and mechanical engineering;
surveying and levelling; interior design; draughtsmanship; physics, chemistry and meteorology; agricultural
technology; mineralogy and geography; general and specifi c botany and zoology; anatomy
and biology of plants and animals; morphology, breeds and diseases and the medical science and
treatment of domestic animals; general and specifi c agriculture, horticulture and silviculture; cattle
breeding, poultry, beekeeping and dairy farming; agricultural bookkeeping; the study of the agriculture,
horticulture and silviculture industries; colonial agriculture and silviculture. See NA 2.11.35
– inv. 108: ‘directie van de agriculture, afdeling agricultureonderwijs 1895-1957’.
32 phytopathology: a private or a public institute?