The Agricultural Sciences Flourish and Contribute to the Growing Size, Health, and Wealth of Western Nations
Overview
During the nineteenth century the agricultural sciences flourished in the Western world. When the century began there was not one person who devoted a career to the scientific investigation of agriculture; by the century's end, however, at least two thousand scientists worked in one of the agricultural colleges, experiment stations, and laboratories devoted to the agricultural sciences found around the globe. In the course of one hundred years, scientific discoveries fundamentally reshaped the way farmers selected seed, fertilized fields, fed livestock, controlled pests, and processed foods. In an era of industrialization and urbanization, the application of science to agriculture contributed to the growing size, health, and wealth of many Western nations.
Background
For much of the nineteenth century agricultural chemistry was virtually synonymous with agricultural science. Beginning with the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), who operated a model farm of his own, scientists began to recognize that chemical compounds and reactions explained many issues related to plant and animal growth. Britain's Board of Agriculture commissioned Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) to give lectures on connections between chemistry and agriculture, leading to his influential 1813 text, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry.
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