PDF file: Annual Report 2002/2003 - Scottish Crop Research Institute

Director’s Report
on large parts of Europe towards the end of the 13 th
century and much of the 14 th century, as wars, human
diseases, famine, depopulation, and adverse weather
retarded agricultural development. Economic recovery
took place during the 15 th and 16 th centuries, and
technological advancements driven by pronounced
societal changes became manifest between 1600 to
1800 AD. European agriculture was for two millennia
based on the socially restrictive open-field system,
best exemplified in the feudal manorial system, in
which peasant holdings (strips) were intermixed
amongst the different field, usually changing from
year to year, spreading the risk of poor harvests. Crop
rotation was initially by the two-field system, giving
way in later centuries to the more efficient three-field
system. An area of land was retained under permanent
pasture for common grazing. From the mid-
1400s to the mid-1800s, Europe was subject to the
Little Ice Age, and was at its coldest during 1645 to
1715 – the Maunder Minimum, named after the
astronomer E. W. Maunder (1851-1928). Long winters
and cool summers created the conditions for welldocumented
reports of hunger and famine prompting
mass migration, low agricultural yields, and ergotism
caused by fungal-infected cereal grains.
At a time when the population in the UK doubled to
10 million during the 18 th century, agricultural specialism
in most of the arable areas of the countries
now constituting the UK was made possible by five
developments. Firstly, land enclosures (see the 2001-
2002 edition of this Report) replaced the old manorialbased
co-operative open-field system. Secondly, the
Norfolk four-course system was adopted (wheat in the
first year, turnips mainly for fodder in the second
year, barley undersown with rye grass and clover in
the third year, rye grass and clover grazed or cut for
fodder in the fourth year – there was no fallow season).
Thirdly, improvements were introduced in the
nutrition, breeding, and maintenance of livestock,
chiefly of cattle, pigs, and sheep. Fourthly, technological
advancement took place in the manufacture of
ploughs, threshing and fodder-preparation machinery,
seed drills, drainage, and irrigation, as well as in crop
types, and new types of crop were introduced, especially
the potato. Fifthly, there began formal agricultural
education and learning through published books
and pamphlets, as well as through improvement societies
and the active oversight and encouragement of
agriculture by Government. As the Industrial
Revolution took hold and the rural population transferred
out of food production into towns and cities,
agricultural production was unable fully to satisfy
demand, leading to food imports of commodities normally
able to be grown in Great Britain, chiefly of
cereals from Poland, Prussia, and Russia. The population
began to enjoy agricultural products (fruit, vegetables,
spices, nuts, beverages, drugs, dyes, fibres etc.)
from North America, the Middle East, and Far East,
and agriculture became a major activity of the
colonies. British farming set the international standards
for quality, innovation, efficiency, mechanisation,
and specialisation.
Agricultural science and engineering came to the fore
during the 19 th century, introducing conceptually
new designs of ploughs, mole ploughs, cultivators,
reapers, threshing machines, steam-powered equipment,
cream separators and coolers, and fertilisers, in
concert with railroads and steamships for transporting
crops and livestock. New supply chains and markets
were created as well as specialist labour forces not only
to produce but also to process food and industrial
materials. At the same time, a number of countries
established agricultural research institutes (e.g.
Rothamsted in England) and colleges (e.g. Royal
Agricultural College at Cirencester, England).
Modern genetics has its origin in the experimental
work of Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), who through
experiments on cross-breeding garden peas discovered
that the progeny of the parent plants had characteristics
such as flower colour and shape of seeds distributed
in definite mathematical ratios. He concluded in
1865 that many traits segregated into dominant and
recessive alternatives, and that combined traits assorted
independently: the particulate native of inheritance
was demonstrated. Special mention should be made
of Marrhias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881), botanist
and co-founder with Theodor Schwann (1810-1882)
of the cell theory, crucial to the development of the
life sciences. Schleiden in 1838 stated that the different
parts of a plant organism are composed of cells or
derivatives of cells. He also recognised the importance
of the cell nucleus in living cells, a structure first discovered
and named in 1831 by Montrose-born
Robert Brown (1773-1858). Schwann propounded
the cell theory in animals in 1839, and was also noted
for isolating pepsin, discovery of the myelin sheath
surrounding peripheral axons, and coining the term
metabolism for the chemical changes taking place in
living tissues. H. de Vries (1848-1935), C. Correns
(1864-1933), and E. Tschermak (1871-1962) independently
rediscovered the obscure 1865 work of
Mendel, confirming their own work in inheritance.
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