New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture

Front Matter....Pages i-vii
Introduction....Pages 1-8
Plants and Places: Agricultural Knowledge and Plant Geography in Germany, 1750–1810....Pages 9-26
Drawing the Line: Mapping Cultivated Plants and Seeing Nature in Nineteenth-Century Plant Geography....Pages 27-52
Rose and Pear Breeding in Nineteenth-Century France: The Practice and Science of Diversity....Pages 53-72
Napoleonic Cotton Cultivation: A Case Study in Scientific Expertise and Agricultural Innovation in France and Italy, 1806–1814....Pages 73-91
Whale Oil Pesticide: Natural History, Animal Resources, and Agriculture in Early Modern Japan....Pages 93-111
Forests, Climate, and the Rise of Scientific Forestry in Russia: From Local Knowledge and Natural History to Modern Experiments (1840s–early 1890s)....Pages 113-137
The Rise of Applied Entomology in the Russian Empire: Governmental, Public, and Academic Responses to Insect Pest Outbreaks from 1840 to 1894....Pages 139-162
Nutrition Science and the Practice of Animal Feeding in Germany, 1850–1880....Pages 163-181
Artificial or Biological? Nature, Fertilizer, and the German Origins of Organic Agriculture....Pages 183-203
Science, Promotion, and Scandal: Soil Bacteriology, Legume Inoculation, and the American Campaign for Soil Improvement in the Progressive Era....Pages 205-229
Mold Cultures: Traditional Industry and Microbial Studies in Early Twentieth-Century Japan....Pages 231-252
The Coproduction of Station Morphology and Agricultural Management in the Tropics: Transformations in Botany at the Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg, Java 1880–1904....Pages 253-275
Regionalizing Knowledge: The Ecological Approach of the USDA Office of Dryland Agriculture on the Great Plains....Pages 277-296
Rexford F. Daubenmire and the Ecology of Place: Applied Ecology in the Mid-Twentieth-Century American West....Pages 297-322
Agricultural Improvement at China’s First Agricultural Experiment Stations....Pages 323-344
Did Mendelism Transform Plant Breeding? Genetic Theory and Breeding Practice, 1900–1945....Pages 345-370
Chicken Breeding: The Complex Transition from Traditional to Genetic Methods in the USA....Pages 371-393
Breeding Better Peas, Pumpkins, and Peasants: The Practical Mendelism of Erich Tschermak....Pages 395-413
More than Metamorphosis: The Silkworm Experiments of Toyama Kametarō and his Cultivation of Genetic Thought in Japan’s Sericultural Practices, 1894–1918....Pages 415-437
Genetics and “Breeding as a Science”: Kihara Hitoshi and the Development of Genetics in Japan in the First Half of the Twentieth Century....Pages 439-458
Speeding Up Evolution: X-Rays and Plant Breeding in the United States, 1925–1935....Pages 459-478
Watching Grass Grow: The Emergence of Brachypodium distachyon as a Model for the Poaceae ....Pages 479-501
Back Matter....Pages 503-509