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wonderful collection of plant diseases caused by fungi and bacteria. Everything
bottled in spirits was in splendid order. But Ritzema Bos had been struck
by the lack of cooperation in France between scientists on the one hand, and
agriculturalists and horticulturists on the other. To his astonishment, in that
entire, vast country, the two full-time professors of phytopathology in Paris
received fewer requests for information in a year than he dealt with alone –
and until recently he had been responding to such queries on a voluntary basis.
This was incomprehensible, given the diseases that had been affl icting viticulture
for decades. No, he concluded dryly, ‘the cooperation between theory
and practice in Paris is not yet as it should be.’ 33
Nothing at all would change between himself and the farmers and horticulturalists,
he assured readers in the fi rst issue of Tijdschrift over Plantenziekten. 34
From the Phytopathology Laboratory he would continue, as in the past, to
provide information to farmers, fl orists, vegetable-growers, amateur gardeners,
fruit-growers and silviculturalists. This was, and would remain, the Laboratory’s
main task. If anything, there would be a change for the better. ‘While
in the past I sometimes had to keep my answers brief for lack of time, once
I can devote myself entirely to the research on plant diseases and plant damage,
as director of the Phytopathology Laboratory, I hope always to be able to
provide information in as much detail as is needed.’ 35
Nor would much change for his students in Wageningen. He would still
(at the school’s request) be teaching several classes a week at the State School
of Agriculture. For ‘the cause of phytopathology’ he would have to travel
more than in the past, and besides, he argued to the board, keeping in touch
with Wageningen could only benefi t the laboratory in Amsterdam. Moreover,
as a teacher in Wageningen he would have soil, laboratory equipment,
books and journals at his disposal that he would not need to purchase in
Amsterdam. 36 He hoped to have more time for research, but he had always
accorded this element lower priority. And expectations in this regard should
not be unduly high, he warned again, since ‘sometimes years of prolonged,
serious study are needed to identify the cause of some particular plant
disease.’ 37
33 Ritzema Bos to Scholten, 22 April 1895, archives of the wcs.
34 J. Ritzema Bos, ‘Het Phytopathologisch onderzoek in Nederland, en het Phytopathologisch
Laboratorium Willie Commelin Scholten te Amsterdam’, Tijdschrift over Plantenziekten, 1895, pp. 1-12.
35 Ibid., p. 10.
36 Ritzema Bos to Scholten, 15 January 1895, archives of the wcs.
37 J. Ritzema Bos, ‘Het Phytopathologisch onderzoek in Nederland en het Phytopathologisch
Laboratorium Willie Commelin Scholten te Amsterdam’, Tijdschrift over Plantenziekten, 1895, p. 11.
42 phytopathology: a private or a public institute?