The Agricultural Research Association, the Development Fund, and The

Home , John Boyd Orr

The Agricultural Research Association, the Development Fund, and the Origins of the Rowett Research Institute By DAVID SMITH Abstract The Aberdeen Agricultural Association, later renamed the Agricultural Research Association, was established in I875. Relying upon donations from landowners, the Association set up an experimental station and laboratory, and for a few years ran an experimental farm. From the beginning, the organization challenged the views of agricultural scientists in England. Thomas Jamieson, the Association's chemist, demonstrated that insoluble phosphate was a more useful fertiliser than had been supposed, and later claimed to have shown that green plants could fix atmospheric nitrogen. This lead to a bruising conflict with the director of Rothamsted Experimental Station. In the I9IOS the Association's work ceased after it failed to secure a grant from the newly-formed Development Commission.In contrast, ajoint committee of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture and Aberdeen University obtained Development Commission funds for an animal nutrition laboratory, and in I914 appointed John Boyd On:, a Glasgow medical graduate, as research worker. Orr proved much more effective than Jamieson, both in building and using alliances with members of the agricultural science establishmentin England, and in obtaining private funds, leading to the officialopening of the 1KowettResearch Institute, of which Orr was designated director, in 1922. HE Development Fund, established Scotland College of Agriculture, lead to under the Development and Road the commencement of a modest pro- T Improvement Act, 19o9, is one of gramme of research before the war, and to the measures associated with David Lloyd the formation of the Rowett Research George's 'People's Budget'. The act sought Institute in the early inter-war period. to encourage economic development by Directed by John Boyd Orr, by the I93OS various means, including the support of the Rowett had become world-famous for agricultural education and research, and research in both animal and human may be regarded as part of the Edwardian nutrition. movement to promote 'public science' and We will see that the final stages of the enhance 'national efficiency'. I The fund existence of the ARA were characterized was disbursed by the Treasury on the by acrimonious controversy between the recommendations of eight commissioners agricultural research establishment and the and during 191o two applications for grants AR.A's idiosyncratic director, Thomas were received from Aberdeen: one, from Jamieson, over the latter's claims to have the Agricultural Research Association shown that green plants can Rx atmospheric (ARA), was unsuccessful, contributing to nitrogen. Nevertheless, the continuous the final demise of this organization; the activity of the ARA and its predecessor other, from the Aberdeen and North of organization over the period I875-I913 ' B K Murray, The People's Budget rgog/ro: Lloyd George and Liberal was, in itself, something of an achievement Politics, I98O; IK Olby, 'Social imperialism and state support for in Scotland. Russell's History of Agricultural agricultural research in Edwardian Britain', Annals of Sdence, 48, I991, pp 5o9-26; F M Turner, 'Public science in Britain, Science gives the impression that, while I88O-I918', ISIS, 7I, I98O, pp 589-6o8; G iK Searle, The Questfor National Efficiency: A Study of British Politits and Political Thought, England saw the development of research 1899-19x4, 1971. at Wye College, Cambridge University, Ag Hist Rev, 46, I, pp 47-63 47 ii 'i~ : ill

48 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Long Ashton, Cockle Park and elsewhere owners, farmers and factors, two manufac- during this period, the main role of turers of manures and a seedsman, with the Scotland was to produce researchers rather Marquis of Huntly as president. The for- than research. Scotsmen, such as William mation of the Association was largely the Somerville, T H Middleton, D A Gilchrist initiative of James W Barclay, MP for and F H A Marshall, pursued their careers Forfarshire since 1872.5 Barclay was initially at the new institutions south of the border. a Liberal and later a Unionist. Local self- In Scotland, even the Highland and made chemist Thomas Jamieson, lecturer Agricultural Society failed to sustain the in chemistry at the Mechanics Institution experimental stations run by its chemist in Aberdeen, was employed to direct the beyond the period 1877-89 .2 Paul Brassely Association's experiments. In about 1878 regards I89o as a turning point in the Jamieson became city analyst for Aberdeen 6 fortunes of agricultural research in Britain and from 1879 vigorously applied himself prior to the First World War, yet not one to the development of agricultural edu- of the institutional developments that he cation at Aberdeen University as Fordyce mentions took place in Scotland) Lecturer in agricultural science/ This paper is not intended to be a The income of the Association was scientific assessment of the research done £350-£380 per annum, provided mostly by the Agricultural Research Association by landowners. In 188o, for example, £36o and the Rowett Research Institute. It rather was raised from 40 subscribers, but seven forms a local case study of the transform- of them, including the inhabitants of ation in the organization of agricultural Aboyne Castle, Cluny Castle, Gordon science during the early twentieth century, Castle, and Haddo House gave a total of which accompanied the advent of large- £250. One large donation was given by scale public funding. The story brings into W Cunliffe Brooks, Conservative MP for focus the challenges faced by those in Cheshire East, who owned property in I Scotland who sought to extract a share of Aboyne. About one-fifth of the remaining centrally-administered research funds, as subscribers were manure manufacturers and well as the special circumstances which other agricultural suppliers, s ' i influenced developments in Aberdeen. Four field stations were established on land belonging to the Association's supporters, for research on the use of phos- I phates for growing turnips. Such a project The initial aim of the Aberdeen was ideally suited to the needs of the Agricultural Association, established in farmers of the North-East, which had, by August 1875, was to conduct experiments this time, become famous for its fat cattle, 'principally for the purpose of guiding and in order to produce sufficient winter and informing Farmers in regard to the feed, much effort was put into achieving application of Manures'. 4 The 'Acting good turnip crops. And according to I A Committee' of twelve consisted of land- Symon the dissemination of results of experiments such as these helped farmers ~E J Russell, A History of Agricultural Science it1 Great Britain, I966, pp z83-252; J D G Davidson, 77~e Royal Highland and Agricultural 'Obituary', The Times, 2 March z9o7, p 8e; 'In memorium' in Society of Scotland. A Short History .r784-x984, Ingliston, I984, T Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen h, Air by Plat,ts III, Aberdeen, pp 23-4. I9o7-8 (Aberdeen Research Association Report, I9o7-8), pp 3-5. ~P Brassley, 'Agricultural research in Britain, I85o-I914: failure, ~Aecording to Mr Tlwmas Jamiesot,, Chev Fr, FIC, Sketch of his Life success and development', Annals of Science, 52, I995, pp 465-80. and Work, Aberdeen, I899, by I899 Jamieson had held the post of 'Extract from minute of the first meeting of the subscribers, August public analyst for 2z years. z875', in Proceedit,gs of the Aberdeen Agricultural Association x875-Sz, 7j Hendrick, The Progress of Agricultural Education it, Scotland, Library of the School of Agriculture, Aberdeen [hereafter LSAA], Aberdeen, I912. xPer 63oAbe [hereafter Proceedings x875-Sz]. s 'List of subscribers for the fifth season', I88o, in Proceedings x875-82.

h I; :4; ..... - ...... THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 49 in Scotland to reduce fertiliser costs during now nearly over'. ~3 In his report for the the economic difficulties of the late nine- following year Jamieson triumphantly pro- teenth century. 9 claimed victory and noted that the view that At each of the field stations, 36 plots fossil phosphates should be regarded as assim- were laid out, each sufficient for 2o0 tur- ilable by plants had been endorsed by an nips, ~° and Jamieson soon concluded, from 'International Congress of Directors of experiments with the mineral coprolite, Agricultural Experimental Stations' held in finely ground, that 'soluble phosphate is paris. ~4 not superior to insoluble phosphate to the Ground insoluble phosphates were cer- extent that is supposed'. I~ It was claimed tainly more valuable as fertilisers than many that farmers had been wasting money using other scientists had supposed before 'superphosphate', manufactured by treating Jamieson's work but Russell explained insoluble phosphates with sulphuric acid. I~ Jamieson's success with ground coprolites The method for the production of super- as resulting from their application to acidic phosphate had been patented in 1842 by soils, in which conditions insoluble phos- J B Lawes, FR.S, the owner and founder phates are more readily available to crops25 of Rothamsted Experimental Station. That insoluble phosphates are only useful Lawes's wealth, and Rothamsted, owed in acidic soils is now the standard textbook much to the view that insoluble phosphates view, I6 but some degree of uncertainty were unavailable to plants. remains: one recent author who made a In 188o, Jamieson's claims were chal- special study of insoluble phosphates argued lenged by J C A Voelcker, FP,.S, consulting that it is the concentration of calcium ions chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society. in the soil rather than acidity which is most Contrary to previous statements Voelcker imp ortant, i now accepted that insoluble phosphates had 'fertilising properties', but suggested 'treat- ment with acid is the most economical and II best plan of utilising mineral phosphates'. After the first two seasons, Jarnieson began Jamieson replied to Voelcker in The Mark to study other problems, such as the valu- Lane Express, resulting in an exchange with ation of manures, the use of manures in Bernard Dyer, Voelcker's former assistant. the production of hay, grain and straw, and Dyer criticized the small scale of the the cause of 'finger-and-toe disease' in Aberdeen experiments and pointed out the turnips. Is Jamieson's initial approach to variability in Jamieson's results. But while 'finger and toe disease' was to question 2oo Dyer thought Jamieson's experiments could farmers about their experiences of the not give 'definite or precise information' he problem and, following trails, he later con- also stated: 'That ground coprolites may cluded that the disease was associated with increase the turnip crop, there is no doubt the use of superphosphate. ~9 Jamieson in my mind ...'. Jamieson included these regarded this as one of the most important articles, and his replies, and an exchange with findings of the Association and later Lawes in North British Agriculturalist, in his report to the Association for 188o, and con- ,3 T Jamieson, 'Report', Season I88o, in ibid, pp 36-40, 44-8, 50. cluded, 'the "battle of the phosphates" is '4T Jamieson, 'Report', Season r88r, in ibid, pp 5-6. ,5 Ikussell, Agriadtural Science, pp r85-6. '~ George W Cooke, Fertilizing.for Maxhnum Yield, I98Z, p r45. 'TG i~ Davies, Comparison of Insoluble Phosphate Fertilisers, Welsh Soils Discussion Group: Special Report No I, I984, p 67. I A Symon, Scottish Fanning Past at,d Present, I959, pp I96, 2o5. 'ST Jamieson, 'Report', March x879, and 'Report', March I882, in '°T Jamieson, 'Report', March I877, in Proceedings z875-82, p 6. Proceedings z875-82, pp I7-r9, II-I6. "T Jarnieson, 'Report', I877, in ibid, p 32. ,9 T Jamieson, 'Report to the Committee', March I879, and 'lt.eport '~TJarnieson, 'Report', March I879, in ibid, p Io. to the Committee', March I882, in ibid, pp I7-I9, H-I6. i 5 ° THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW remarked that this was 'one of the few the original field experiments, he was now findings of the Association that have been criticized for using even smaller exper- accepted without opposition'? ° This is imental plots. He explained that such plots probably because Jamieson's views were in allowed for strict control of every condition line with established knowledge and prac- such as drainage, subsoil, soil and culti- tice: he accepted the recent findings of the vation, but this never satisfied the critics P,.ussian scientist M Woronin that a fungus however? 6 Further experiments directed was the immediate cause of finger-and-toe, by Jamieson were carried out in England and liming had long been used to control under the auspices Sussex Association for the problem. =~ It was a small step to the the Improvement of Agriculture, an organ- conclusion that superphosphate, which was ization which was formed at Jamieson's regarded as an acidic manure, aggravated suggestion along the lines of the AKA, the problem. Even Jamieson's rival, A D after he was contacted by a landowner Hall, expressed this position. = Later writ- from the county. The work in Sussex was ers, however, while accepting the associ- directed byJamieson for twelve years, until ation between finger-and-toe and acidity, he gave it up because of health problems no longer regard superphosphate as increas- in the early I89OS. a7 ing soil acidity. ~3 The AILA's farm was only worked for Jamieson's report for I88r advocated five years and was given up by r889, after establishing an experimental station and which investigations were confined to the farm, and in order to pursue this objective research station and laboratory with some the Aberdeen Agricultural Association was larger-scale trials on the farms of supporters. transformed, in I883, into the Agricultural The failure of the farm was ascribed mainly Research Association (ARA), which, it was to bad seasons and a sharp fall in prices. hoped, would be able to sustain the more Nevertheless, based on his five-year's ambitious programme more effectively.~4 experience, Jamieson was soon boldly stat- A group of about fifteen, of similar social ing that the results of 'disregarding rotation composition to those giving the largest and of severe cropping ... so long as there sums to the original organization, provided is suitable and sufficient manure given, donations of £5o-5oo, and an additional need not be feared'. ~s The farm had also 4r people provided subscriptions of up to involved a social experiment. Farm servants £25? 5 Land was leased at Glasterberry, often lodged with farmers but inJamieson's near Peterculter, close to Aberdeen, and view, 'Such close communication ... leads used for a research station, laboratory, and to insubordination ... and to peculiar an experimental arable farm. notions of work and duties'. =9 He therefore Twelve lines of ten one-thousandth of converted a byre to provide rooms for four an acre plots were laid out. Just as Jamieson men and a housekeeper. And instead of had been criticized for using small plots for being bound to work for six months, JaMeson's farm servants were engaged by ao T Jamieson, History of the Progress of Agricultural Science h~ Great the week. Britahz, Edinburgh, r9Ir, pp 83-4. ~IL N Campbell and A S Greathead, 'Control of dubroot of crucifiers by liming', in A W Englehard, ed, Soilborne Plant Pathogens: Management of Diseases with Macro- and Microelements, Minnesota, 1989, pp 9o-Ioi. ~ 'Organisation, object and work of the Aberdeenshire Agficulnaral ~A Daniel Hall, Fertilisers and Manures, 19I=, p 15I. Research Association', in Proceedings of the Agricultural Research ~A Beaumont, Diseases of Farm Crops, I959, p 85; K Parsley, Associatior~ z89t-99, LSAA, xPer 630 Agr [hereafter Proceedings ! Fertilisers and Manures I959, p 71. .~89z-99], p vi. •4 T Jamieson, 'Report', March I882, in Proceedings x875-82, p 33. 27Annual Reports of tile Proceedings of the Sussex Association for the ~T Jamieson, 'Circular', No 7, January I888, in Proceedings Improvement of Agrindture, z881-89, LSAA, xPer 63oSus. Agricultural Research Association x885-9o, LSAA, xPer 63oAgr [here- :STJamieson, 'ILeport' Season I89o, in Proceedh~gs z885-9 o, p 9. after Proceedings z885-9o], pp rr-r7. :9 lbid, p 4. !L

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THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION SI Despite the initial generosity of land- 1913, the last year for which a financial owners, the AtLA was continuously short statement is available.3~ of funds, but from the late 188os a share was received of the first sums made available by the government for agricultural Ill research. In 1888 the Agricultural The reports of the ARA, which give results Department of the Privy Council gave the of many varied investigations, are testi- ARA £15o. 30 Jamieson commented that mony to Jamieson's industry and enthusi- the value of the grant lay not in the amount asm, and suggest significant local influence. but in the recognition of the work of the But a detailed account of the investigations, ARA. In his view 'the slow and delicate and an evaluation of the results and influ- separation of facts from mistaken ideas with ence, cannot be attempted in this paper, which the untrained familiarity of gener- where we must concentrate upon those ation has surrounded almost every investigations which were most important Agricultural subject' implied the need for in connection with the development and ... conditionsattainable only by peacefulcontinuity, fate of the organization. as well as a position independent of popularity, of Besides the work on insoluble phosphate incompetent criticism, and of personal or class and on finger-and-toe disease, there were interests. Perhaps only the State, looking to the seven other findings which Jarnieson subject from a nationalpoint of view, can provide such conditions?' regarded as the ARA's most important contributions to agricultural science. These Jamieson was, however, to be bitterly included the physical features of soil regu- disappointed. The Board of Agriculture, lating fertility, the potential for improving established in 1889, took over the Privy yields by crossing different varieties of cere- Council grant but reduced it to £ioo from als and grasses, and the ability of rye grass 1893-4, and withdrew it altogether in to change its form. Jamieson also claimed 19o7. The income of the ARA was briefly that his microscopic studies showed the enhanced in 19o4 and 19o5 by £200 per existence of an aperture in root hairs, and annum from the Aberdeen County nitrogen-fixing hairs in plants) 3 Council, and from 19o9 to I912, £IOO per After the 'battle of the phosphates' it annum was received from the 'Scotch appears that the ARA's work did not arouse Education Department via the Aberdeen much interest among scientists elsewhere. and North of Scotland College of Their attitude may be illustrated by the Agriculture. After this, all state funding review in Nature of Jamieson's Farmer's ceased. Handbook (19o5). Readers were told that In 1891 the AP,_A was reorganized, an Jamieson had been carrying on 'a series of executive committee of thirteen was estab- agricultural experiments, or rather demon- lished, and new subscribers were recruited, strations' on a small scale, but in 'a very including H M The Queen, increasing the careful and neat fashion'. The book gath- total to about 80. But financial problems ered the results and offered a 'brightly continued. After the reorganization the written rfisum~ of the elementary facts highest level of annual subscription was connected with manures'. The reviewer just over £19o, in 1896. Subscription continued: income steadily declined to about £63 in

3o See 'Deputation to the Lord President of the Privy Council from 32 'Organisation, object and work of the Aberdeenshire Agricultural the Sussex Association for the hnprovernent of Agriculture, Research Association; Committee Report', I891, in Proceedings a3 February, I888', in Annual Reports of the Proceedingsof the Sussex rSOr-99, pp 4-8; Proceedingof the Agdcultural Research Associationfor Associationfor the bnprovement of Agdadture, r88r-89. ~913, t9r4. 3, 'Proceedings', Season I889, in Proceedingsr885-9o, pp I3--t4. 33Jamieson, Progressof Agriadtural Science, pp 74-5. 5 2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW When ... we read that this or that fundamental fact commented that had Jamieson an 'elemen- has been discovered or proved ... much as though Mr Jamieson should tell us that he has discovered tary acquaintance with the manipulation of water is composed of eight parts of oxygen and bacteria' he could easily demonstrate their one of hydrogen, we can only admire the innocence existence in root nodules. He ridiculed the in which Mr Jamieson has managed to preserve his list of authorities who supposedly rejected mind. Not for him the knowledge of good or evil the bacteria theory as 'equally amazing as that comes of reading other men's work ...34 regard either its inclusions, its omissions, Jamieson appears to have been considered or its spellings of proper names', and more as a joke than a threat. However, his described the conclusions of the micro- later work on nitrogen fixation was not scope studies as 'even more amazing'. just mocked, but was also attacked. The reviewer remarked that Jamieson's Jamieson made a greater effort to publicize 'diScovery' this work, which he regarded as his greatest ... would be amusing were it not so dangerous and achievement. Four reports of the ARA discreditable to the cause of scientific research. Mr appeared between I9o5 and I9II, entitled Jamieson has a following ... there is a body of solid Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants. famlers and landowners who sit under him and take In the pre-amble to the first report, advice on practical matters which they suppose to represent the last word on science. Accustomed to Jamieson rejected classic experiments by the amenisites of theological disputation, these men Lawes and by J B Boussingault, because like their agricultural science in the same style; not the plants employed had been small and the dry light of reason, but a strenuous assertion of weak. He also rejected the view that root a monopoly of the truth, rhetoric and passion, and nodules of leguminous plants contained a vigorous denunciation of the other side-all these they get from Mr Jamieson. But it is a windy diet, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, counterpoising and sooner or later disagrees with the subject, the views of botanists who, he claimed, whereupon science gets the blame) 6 regarded the nodules as the product of fungal attack. Jamieson argued it was A D H quoted trials by Lawes and J B difficult to understand the productivity of Gilbert, Lawes's successor as director of prairies, and of pine forests on shallow soil, P,.othamsted, but Jamieson replied with an alternative interpretation of this work and unless plants could fix nitrogen, and set about identifying the part of plants respon- remarked that 'to show that plants fix free sible for the process. nitrogen is to undermine the work with which P,.othamsted is chiefly identified'. Jamieson claimed that staining tech- niques showed that protein formed at the He suggested that readers could assess the ends of leaf hairs and travelled along the critique if they were aware that A D H hair to the plant's vascular system. He was A D Hall, director of P.othamsted since 1902. 37 Hall replied found such 'albumen generators' on some part of all plants at some stage of develop- Mr Jamieson appears to suggest that Lawes and ment. He claimed that all green plants Gilbert ran the Rothamsted experiments as a sort of conspiracy to disguise the truth in favour of a could fix nitrogen, but accepted that cereals prepossession of their own, and that after their needed nitrogen from the soil for maxi- death the body of scientific men who constitute mum production. 3s the conmfittee of management engaged the present Under the heading 'A mare's nest' (an director to continue the traditional fraud; this is a 'illusory discovery') the report was 'theory' which, like others of Mr Jamieson's, nmst reviewed in Nature by 'A D H', who

~4'P.ecent publications in agricultural science', Nature, 72, 19o5, pp 3z4-5. 3~A D H, 'A mare's nest', Nature, 73, I9o6, pp 53I-Z. as T Jamieson, Utilisatiot, of Nitrogen in Air by Plants, Aberdee,l, ;905 37 T Jamieson, 'utilisation of nitrogen in air by plants', Nature, 73, (Aberdeen Research Association Report, I9o5). I9o6, pp 6o7-8. THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 53 require a robust confidence in the credulity of his withdrawal of the grant more precisely, disciples2 s Jamieson claimed that this outcome 'may In August 19o6 Jamieson read a paper on be held to meet all such unworthy the utilization of nitrogen to the British attacks'. 4~ This conclusion proved prema- Association, but claimed that the chair cut ture. Although Jamieson's fourth report on him off before he had time to present the nitrogen fkxadon was able to cite corrobor- 'weight evidence' called for by his critics. ation of his weight data by Professors He then faced a 'little army of carpers', to Pollacci and Mameli of Italy,42 the whom he did not have time to reply. 39 'unworthy attacks' continued. 'Weight evidence' was presented in Jamieson's second report on the utilization of nitrogen. Details were given of experi- IV ments in which plants gained nitrogen that, Jamieson's scientific positions not only led according to Jamieson, could only have to his estrangement from the developing come from the air. Jamieson claimed his agricultural science establishment in findings had been well-received in England, but he also became estranged America, Ireland, and on the continent. from the local centre of agricultural edu- His first report had been republished in cation despite his pioneering efforts in this Annales de la Science Agronomique. Jamieson's field. From the I88OS, Jamieson fought a third report included additional results of series of battles over the methods and his own, and further evidence of the orientation of agricultural education. His seriousness with which his discovery was own policy was to avoid lecturing on treated abroad¢ ° agricultural practice to farmers, but to teach The third report also included an them the principles of chemistry, and the account of Jamieson's attempts to obtain results of experiments. .3 He opposed the redress from the Board of Agriculture fol- introduction of one-off practical 'exten- lowing the withdrawal of the Board's grant. sion' lectures, and a degree course in agric- When pressed, the Board had specified ulture. These strongly held and expressed disapproval of the ARA's opinions on bac- views led to Jamieson's loss of the Fordyce teria in nitrogen fixation. Regarding such Lectureship when the Aberdeen University a judgement as outwith the Board's com- agricultural department was re-organized petence, Jamieson appealed to every in the mid-I89OS. Apparently, Jamieson's member of the Cabinet. The Prime fate was due to pressure from the county Minister stated he was unable to inter- councils and Board of Agriculture which fere in a 'purely departmental matter'. funded the re-organization.44 Nevertheless, Subsequently, Jamieson travelled to the Aberdeen County Council provided London to meet the President of the Board the AIZA with a grant in I9O3 which was of Agriculture, Lord Carrington, who used to subsidize the Tarmer's Handbook. 4s apparently withdrew the disapproval, but In I9O4, with further finance from the explained that the grant had been discon- tinued on the recommendation of an 4, Ibid, p 56. unidentified 'expert'. Since Carrington 4aT Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants IV, Aberdeen, I9t I (Agricultural Research Association Report, I9t I), pp 32-4. seemed unable to specify the reason for the 43 See T Jamieson, The Relation of Chen,istry to Agriculture. A Lea,Ire, Aberdeen, r878; idem, Present Positiot, of Agricultural Education in Scotland, Aberdeen, t89L JSA D H, 'Comment on utilisation of nitrogen in air by plants', 44 Mr 77wmas jan,ieson; Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Nature, 73, 19o6, p 6o~1. Plants IIL 3~T Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants II, Aberdeen, 45j W Barclay, 'Report by the Committee, December t9o4', in I9o6 (Aberdeen Research Association Report, I9o6), p 34. Proceedings of tl'e Agricultural Research Association ~9oo-o4, LSAA, 4°Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants HI. xPer 630 Agr, p i2. 54 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW county councils, the University department lessor of agriculture at Cambridge, who was transformed into the Aberdeen and had recently joined the staff of the Board, North of Scotland College of Agriculture. and A D Hall. 5° Aberdeen County Council then withdrew By this time, the establishment of the its grant to the ARA, but suggested that Development Fund had been mooted, and the ARA might affiliate with the College. 46 the ARA applied for ;£50o from this source In March 19o6, however, after a discussion in July 191o.s~ Jamieson was pessimistic of a memorandum by Jarnieson which when the application was referred to the emphasized that any arrangement would Board of Agriculture, s~ and he was right have to guarantee his scientific indepen- to be wary. The Board advised the dence, the College governors declined to Development Commissioners that the share their funds with an 'institution over reason for the withdrawal of the Board's which they have no control'.47 grant, 'that the conclusions arrived at by Further contact between the College and Mr Jamieson as the result of his researches the ~ was initiated in 19o8. After the into the absorption of atmospheric nitro- Board of Agriculture grant was withdrawn, gen ... were ... regarded as erroneous by Jamieson approached the Scotch Education all scientific authorities ... applies equally Department as a possible alternative source to the present application'.53 The com- of funding. .8 The Department suggested missioners hardly needed informing of this that he ask the College for a grant, and because they included Hall, who played Jamieson enjoyed sufficient support for an a major role in the formulation of application to succeed: the governors voted Development Commission policy.54 by fifteen to seven to give the ARA ;£I00 Jamieson was told in August 191I that for 1909, from the funds that they received the commissioners were not prepared to from the Scotch Education Department. make any grant to the A1KA except in Despite opposition, this was renewed each connection with a scheme submitted by year from 191o to i912. 49 the College. ss However, such collaboration When the Board of Agriculture with- was never proposed by the ARA. At the drew its grant, Jamieson responded with end of 1911 the AICA's application to the persistent lobbying, and the matter was College for its usual ;£I00 grant involved raised by his allies in the House of Lords a particularly braising conflict. When in May I9O9. But Carrington was un- objections were raised by Sir John Fleming, moved, and quoted four authorities who a governor appointed by the University,s6 rejected Jamieson's claims about nitrogen: Jamieson's attacks upon the College, Board the professors of botany at Edinburgh and of Agriculture, and Development Com- Aberdeen, T H Middleton, former pro- mission became steadily more vociferous. One memorandum to the governors 46j w Barclay, 'P.eport by the Committee, December I9o5', in headed 'Slander and Vindication of the Agricultural Rcseardl Association Report, t9o5. 47 North of Scotland College of Agriculture Minutes and Proceedings, Nitrogen Discovery' reprinted five LSAA, xPer 63oNor [hereafter NSCA Minutes], Meeting, t6 March I9O6. 50 Padiamentary Debates, Lords, i 909, I, tol i i22-33. 4,~ Scottish Record Office [hereafter SlkO], AF 43/13 T Jamieson to 5~ P1LO, I)2/i, AILA to Treasury, 27 July 1910. J Struthers, 27 Feb, rI, I7 April, 6July I9o8; Agricultural Research ~:SILO, AF43/22, Treasury to AlLA, 9 Aug I91o, T Jamieson to Association [hereafter ALIA] to Board of Agriculture [hereafter Lord Pentland, Io Aug 191o, and manuscript notes summarizing BA], 24 March I9o8; T Jamieson, 'Confimlation of nitrogen the correspondence concerning the AP.A application. fixation by plants. Attempt to stifle the discovery. Dishonourable ~ PP.O, D2/I, BA to Development Commission [hereafter DC], conduct by a government board', 5 July I9o8. 29 May 1911. 49 SILO, AF43/H, J Struthers to T Janfieson, t5 April 19o8; NSCA s4 H E Dale, A D Hall, Pioneer of Scient~c Agriculture, ;956. Minutes, Meetings, 3o Oct I9o8, 19 Nov 19o9, 25 Nov i9io, ~s SILO, AF43/22, Treasury to T Jamieson, ;1 Aug 19If. 21 March I912. See also SILO, AF 43/22, Correspondence between ~SILO, AF43/22, T Jamieson to the governors of the North of the Scotch Education Department [hereafter SED], Jamieson and Scotland College of Agriculture [hereafter NSCA], 7 Dec 19I I, the College. 3 t Dec t 91 t; NSCA Minutes, Meeting, 18 jan ; 912. THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 55 unanswered letters from Jamieson to ing aloof' from the 'money patronage' of Fleming. sv In another memorandum pre- public bodies. pared for MPs Jarnieson complained that Jamieson's report for 1913 was the last when his discovery had been announced published. He included an account of 'no less than three Lecturers of the College experiments on the sterilization of soil,

- simultaneously as if under order - pub- which he intended continuing, but how licly denounced or disparaged it'. 58 much longer the ARA remained functional While the application for 1912 was is unclear. In Nature's Serious Tale, pub- reluctantly accepted, the AKA withdrew lished in 1926, two years after his death, from further attempts to obtain govern- Janfieson explained that the war 'put the ment funding. In his final report on the voluntary support of the research work utilization of nitrogen, Jamieson blamed into abeyance'. The book was an attempt the ARA's difficulties on to report his final findings. Among other ... two, or three, men in the south of England conclusions that he had arrived at were the whose dislike has been aroused by our work, who views that 'The basis of vital action is not are in constant touch with one another, and in protoplasm but rniniature embryos in albu- influential touch with the central authorities ... men', and '"Sex" action is due to different 'aided and abetted' by two or three local lnen. s9 states of oxidation'. He had returned to a The Development Commission, he religious faith, and was comforted by the asserted, had relegated the distribution of thought that his ousting from the money for agricultural research to 'bodies University, providing the leisure which of men who, in some cases, have no real made the discovery of nitrogen fixation sympathy with or knowledge of research, possible, had been 'arranged by higher and who are too often guided by other powers' .62 feelings'. However, he asserted Jamieson was also comforted by a recent It is not known that any material discovery has ever article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society been made on this collective plan, or as a result of which explicitly supported him. Benjamin work to order; it has probably always been the Moore, FP,.S, of the National Institute of result of individual work and devotionP ° Medical Research, referred to the 'utmost After claiming that Rothamsted's results care' that Jarnieson had taken with his were 'useless and misleading' and the experiments and confessed that a 'careful ARA's 'relative position as to results is perusal of the wealth of facts' published by highest in the kingdom', he asked: Jamieson had convinced him 'in favour of Is it for an Association, with such a record, to put the assimilation of nitrogen from the air itself in a position of pleading with public bodies ... by the green cell'. 63 In the long term, of or, recognising them to be undiscerning and biased, course, there was no shift in consensus in to expose and censure them; and, being unable to favour of Jamieson's theories. compel, to leave them to their devices, and to silent contempt? 61 Jamieson concluded that it was time for V the AI'ZA to 'preserve its dignity' by 'hold- While the failure of its application to the Development Commission contributed to the demise of the ARA, an application by svSlt.O, AF43/22, T Jamieson to the governors of NSCA, 31 its local rival succeeded and led eventually Dec I911. S'SlLO, AF43/22, T Jamieson, Document prepared for leading Members of Parliament, nd. ~T Jamieson, Nature's Serio,~s Tak', Aberdeen, r926, p xwi. S~Jamieson, Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants IV, p 53. ~] B Moore and T Arthur Webster, 'Studies of photo-synthesis in ~o Ibid, p 62. flesh-water Algae', Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, 9~, ~' Ibid, p 59. 192o pp 2ot-~5. 56 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW to the establishment of the 1kowett the application of known facts to local Research Institute. But even for the conditions)' then any scheme should take College, extracting funds from the account of what was being done elsewhere Commission was not straightforward. in the UK. v° The governors of the Aberdeen College, In early 1911 the commissioners had along with those of the other Scottish appointed their own advisory committee agricultural colleges, first applied to the charged with producing a programme of Commission in October 191o, for grants agricultural research. Hall was the key to purchase farms for instruction and member of this committee, which entered research:* The Aberdeen application into negotiations with the Board of included £5ooo to cover buildings and Agriculture, whose own advisory com- equipment for experimental work 'particu- mittee, chaired by Middleton, had already larly !n the Feeding and Breeding of Farm proposed a scheme, w The Board favoured stock .65 The applications were rejected on concentrating initially upon providing the grounds that the provision of farms was qualified research workers, and developing not covered by the act, 66 but this policy strong teaching institutions at which was soon revised: by March 1911 it was research would be expected. This focus on agreed that farms could be funded as long teaching institutions tended to exclude as half the costs were raised locally. 6v This Scotland fi'om the Board's plans, as the led to negotiations to purchase Craibstone Scotch Education Department had taken farm, north-west of Aberdeen, which were over the administration of funds for agricul- not completed until 1914. tural education in Scotland in I896. In The pursuit of Development Fund grants contrast to the Board's emphasis on edu- for research was taken over by the Scotch cational institutions, the Commission Education Department. The Highland and favoured a more direct route to the devel- Agricultural Society convened a meeting opment of agricultural research and envis- of representatives of the agricultural and aged the creation of a series of new veterinary colleges, which supported a pro- institutes. A compromise was agreed at a posal of the Department to appoint an meeting between Middleton and Hall in expert committee to advise on Scotland's June I911. The agreed plan retained the agricultural research requirements. 6s In new institutes, but in most cases they were April I9I I the Development Commission- closely associated with teaching insti- ers were informed of a 'strong feeling ... tutions, w In the proposals regarding the that a grant ... for the purpose of aiding remit and location of the institutes there research in relation to Scotland should was only one mention of Scotland: animal be allocated to Scotland separately'.69 nutrition would be covered partly by The commissioners deprecated the pro- Cambridge University 'leaving one other posal to appoint a Scottish advisory com- institute to be settled later, possibly in mittee, and commented that if the Scotch Scotland'.v3 Cambridge was confirmed as Education Department was concerned with the site for an Animal Nutrition Institute 'scientific research proper (as distinct from in August I9Ii: ~I4,500 was granted, the

~4 PRO, D2/3, 'Application by the governors of the Aberdeen and North of Scodand College of Agriculture to the Development 7° PlkO, DJ 3, DC to SED, 5 May I911. Fund', 28 Oct I9Io. v, PRO, MAF 33/63, A13129/I9~o. ,,5 Ibid. 7-- PRO, MAF 33/72/A21599/1914; T H Middleton, Memorandum, ~6PlkO, D2/3, DC to SED, I2 Jan I9H. 3o Dec I914; see also T DeJager, 'Pure science and practical 67NSCA Minutes, DC to SED, 2 March I9H, SED to NSCA, interests: tile origins of tile Agricultural Research Council, to March I9II, in Meeting, I6 March 19rl. I93o-t937', Minen,a, 3 t , I993, p t33, and Olby, 'Social 6~ NSCA Minutes, Meeting, 16 March x9~ I. imperialism', p I52. agPI'ZO, D2/3, SED to DC, 24 April i9ii. 7a PlkO, D2/t, Memorandum on a meeting, 6 june 191 t.

~z-~ ...... ~z~y~.~.~ -¸~ ~-*~::~-. -.~?~- ~- . e ...... THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 57 commissioners waiving the standard con- surprising that there was not a more sym- dition that one-half of the capital was to pathetic attitude towards Scottish needs. be raised from local sources, and building Presumably, having left Scotland after began in early 1913. The co-directors of graduating BSc (Agriculture) in 1889, the Cambridge Institute were professor of Middleton's sympathies were now prim- agriculture T B Wood and biochemist F G arily with English institutions such as Hopkins, but Hopkins lost interest in the Cambridge University, where he had venture after he was appointed to a chair served as professor of agriculture, of biochemistry.74 19o2-19o6, and the Board of Agriculture. s° The Scotch Education Department was During 1911 and 1912 the Aberdeen disappointed, arguing 'a useful if not indis- governors were engaged in the purchase of pensable preliminary ... would have been Craibstone farm, the formulation of a con- a careful enquiry as to the subjects ... of stitution, adopted in March 1912 (after special value to the agricultural community which 'Aberdeen' was dropped from the in Scotland' but commented that the north- name of the College), and the creation of east would be suitable for animal nutrition a chair of agriculture, to which James investigations.7s However, responsibility Hendrick was appointed in May. s1 In for agricultural research was about to be August Hendrick told the governors that it transferred to a Board of Agriculture for was necessary to 'at once push forward' Scotland, created under the Small with the research application. He set out a Landholders (Scotland) Act (1911). The modest scheme involving capital expendi- Development Commissioners then argued ture of £321o and recurrent expenditure that the purpose of the new Agriculture of £420. Hendrick advised that it was (Scotland) Fund, worth £200,000, was unlikely that the commissioners would sup- similar to that of the Development Fund, port research 'on more than one main and should be exhausted before Scottish group of subjects' and suggested that the applications could be considered. 76 When research should focus on animal nutrition it was explained that the Scottish fund was and animal husbandry. However, some of for land resettlement schemes, 77 the com- the governors were concerned that other missioners suggested that payments from subjects should also be supported. The the Development Fund for Scottish pur- principal of Aberdeen University suggested poses might be considered loans, to be 'it would be inimical to the scientific inter- re-paid if the land resettlement programme ests of research if it were confined to one proved less expensive than anticipated. 78 department'.s2 This arrangement was not finally agreed Hendrick's scheme revived the appli- until February i912. 79 Since, after Hall, cation at a time when a proposal, supported one of the most influential participants in by the Board of Agriculture, had been these discussion was Scottish, T H made that the second animal nutrition Middleton, whose initial training was at institute should be established in Leeds Edinburgh University, it is perhaps instead of Scotland. s3 In November 1912, the chair of the governors' sub-committee 74 See M Weatherall, 'The foundation and early years of the Dunn dealing with research, explained that think- Nutritional Laboratory', in D F Smith, ed, Nutrition in Britain: Science, Scientists and Politics in the Twentieth Century, t997, ing it had been agreed that an animal pp 29-52. 7s PRO, 132/3, SED to DC, t2 Aug t9It. 7~SRO, AF43/I, DC to Board of Agriculture for Scotland [here- S°E J Russell, 'Thomas Hudson Middleton t863-I943', Obituary after BAS]. Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 4, I944, pp 555-69. 775R0, AF43/t, BAS to DC, 4June t91a. 8, NSCA Minutes, Meetings, ai March and I6 May t9t2. 7sSILO, AF43/L DC to BAS, t july I912. s~ NSCA Minutes, Meeting, 8 August 19t2. 79 Sl~O, AF43/I, BAS to DC, 17 Feb 1913, DC to BAS, 26 Feb t9t3. s~ PP.O, D2/6, BAS to DC, t6 Aug I9t2. 58 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW nutrition institute would be established in Scottish agricultural colleges, se At the fol- Aberdeen, further action was suspended lowing meeting at the suggestion of HaU while negotiations regarding Craibstone and Haldane, the commissioners decided were underway. Hearing that 'there was a to advise the North of Scotland College of likelihood of... loosing this nutrition grant Agriculture that a joint committee of the

- that it was to be taken to England', ~4 an College and the Aberdeen University application was hurriedly sent to the should be formed to supervise the proposed Development Commission, via the Board research. 87 of Agriculture for Scotland. This was more ambitious than Hendrick's proposal, involving capital expenditure of £4-5ooo VI and recurrent expenditure of £I9oo. The Both the University court and the College proposed programme included research on governors agreed to appoint four represen- the chemistry of food-stuffs, and the nutri- tatives each to a joint committee. At this tive values of food constituents and Scottish time only four of the 45 governors rep- farm foods. J Arthur Thomson, professor resented Aberdeen University, so the of zoology, was to study 'the effect of arrangement greatly enhanced the role of nutrition upon sex and inheritance' while the University in the agricultural research Hendrick was to investigate the use of milk scheme. The governors appointed their substitutes for f~eding young animals. In chairman, Mr James Campbell, com- addition, it was explained that although missioner to the Countess of Seafield and the governors 'regard research in animal representative of Banff County Council, nutrition as the most important part of the Mr 1K H N Sellar, implement maker, and work to be undertaken ... there are other Robert Wilson, MD, both representatives branches of research which are of great of Aberdeen County Secondary Education importance to the district'. These 'minor Committee, and William Bruce, MD, investigations' were a study of soil drainage retired medical officer of health for losses and manure-making, by Hendrick, Dingwall, a co-opted member of the gov- and some experiment that the professor of ernors. 88 The University court appointed botany wanted to carry out. 8s the principal, Sir George Adam Smith, At the end. of November the com- Matthew Hay, professor of forensic medi- missioners agreed to grant Leeds University cine and public health and medical officer £IOOO towards animal nutrition research. of health for Aberdeen, Colonel William The Aberdeen application was also before Johnston, retired army medical officer and the meeting, but the commissioners were an assessors of the court, and H M not yet ready to consider it in detail. A MacDonald, FRS, professor of mathe- report on research in the Scottish universit- matics.89 ies by two of their members, Hall and Sir Before the committee met, the William Haldane, crown agent for Scotland Commission advised that £IOOO would be was also on the table, and the com- made available for research in I913-I4, missioners simply agreed, in principle, that plus an additional £500 if £500 could be 'on receipt of suitable applications' £15oo raised from other sources, provided a suit- per annum could be granted to each of the ~ Pike, I)1/I, DC Meeting, 28 Nov 1912. s4 'College of Agriculture The Craibstone Grant,' rid, Press cuttings STpRo, DI/1, DC Meeting, 19 Dec 19x2; Pl~.O, I)2/IO, I)C to file ~9~3-I92o, pp I4-r5, LSAA. See also NSCA Minutes, NSCA, I Jan I913. Meeting, at Nov I912. 8~ NSCA Minutes, Meeting, 27 Feb 19i ]. S~PI'(O, D2/m, BAS to DC, 2r Oct r9J2; Application by the "~ R.owett Kesearch Institute, Minutes book of joint committee on governors of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture', research in animal nutrition, volume I [hereafter BAld Minutes], Oct r912. Extract from Aberdeen University Court Minutes, l I March 1913.

L..a--, THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 59 able scheme of research was sublrfitted. It Scotland.94 The named projects were was also specified that 'it would be best if, underway by the end of I913. for the present, research carried on in The committee advertised for a bio- Aberdeen were not necessarily confined to chemist in October 1913 and by early one particular subject, but included other November eight applications had been investigations of permanent scientific value received. However, Hendrick and Smith having their origin in local requirements' placed an alternative name before the com- and that 'in undertaking ... any research mittee, E P Cathcart, lecturer in physio- the College should communicate freely logical chemistry at Glasgow University, with the institute specially concerned with and undertook to ascertain what salary the subject'. 9° Cathcart would require. 95 It is not known When the committee met in May I913, how Cathcart's name came to the attention Smith was appointed chairman and a of Hendrick and Smith, but it may be scheme prepared by Hendrick and significant that the applications to the Thomson was presented. This was revised Development Commission of October and submitted to the Commission, and I9IO included a proposal from the West of proposed that a 'Bio-chemist' should be Scotland College for studies of nitrogen appointed to work in co-operation with metabolism and the construction of a res- Hendrick, and that five projects would be piration calorimeter,96 two of Cathcart's carried out - on 'Factors detelaTfining fer- main interests. 97 Smith interviewed tility and sex', 'Soils and drainage', 'Heavy Cathcart and spoke to D N Paton, professor root feeding and dung making', and 'The of physiology at Glasgow, but it seemed nitrogenous constituents of turnips'. 9a that Cathcart was unwilling to go to The programme was approved apart Aberdeen for the salary on offer, £450, or from the project on fertility and sex which to give up his existing work, in view of the Commission regarded as 'too extensive the possibility of a chair of physiology. But and abstract a question to be considered as Smith received a suggestion that Cathcart's a subsidiary subject in a Department of junior colleague, John Boyd Orr, a which the main present object is work in Glasgow graduate in medicine and physi- Animal Nutrition'. 9~- Capital of £807 and ology and a research scholar in Paton's £905 recurrent expenditure would be department, would be a suitable candi- available, provided the senior officer date. 98 Orr and Allen Neville, an agricul- appointed met with the approval of the tural chemist of the School of Agriculture, Board of Agriculture for Scotland, and that Cambridge, appeared before the committee the scheme was discussed with and in mid-January I913. On: was selected and approved by those working on animal appointed from I April 1914 .99 nutrition in Cambridge and Leeds. A After Orr arrived in Aberdeen, the con- further £95 would be provided if a suitable struction of an animal nutrition laboratory project 'more based on local requirements' was begun at Craibstone, while On: was proposed as an alternative to the one worked at the College of Agriculture rejected. 93 The committee successfully and the physiology department of the responded with a proposal to study 'Isle of Wight Bee Disease', which was caus- 94PRO, D2/to, Aberdeen University [hereafter ALl] to DC, It ing problems for honey producers in Nov i913, DC to AU, 3t Oct i9i 3. 9~ I~.B.I Minutes, JC Meeting, 6 Nov t913. 96 PRO, D2/3, Application from the West of Scodand College of ')° I~.B.I Minutes, DC to NSCA, 4 Marcia I913. Agriculture, 24 Oct I9t0. 9, R.I~.I Minutes, JC Meeting, 2 and I6 May 1913. ,;7 See R. C Garry, Life in Physiology (ed D F Smith), Glasgow, I992. 9~" I'~RI Minutes, DC toJC, 8 Sept 1913,JC Meeting, 26 Sept I9t3. 9H lklkl Minutes, JC Meeting, 20 Nov I913. 9J PRO, DI/I, DC Meeting, 26June t9t3. 99 Iklkl Minutes, JC Meeting, r5 Jan 1914. 6O THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW University. He continued work begun in Human Nutrition and public health gener- Glasgow on the influence of water inges- ally'. ~°5 Much was made of this point in tion on the excretion of the metabolites the First Report of the Institute, issued in creatin and creatinin in urine, using human December 1922. It was claimed that 'prob- subjects? °° Before the laboratory was com- ably the greater part ... of the ill-health of pleted however, Orr joined the Royal human beings is due ... to nutritional Army Medical Corps and research on disorders' and that much of the research to animal nutrition was effectively suspended be carried out would be applicable to for the duration of the war. During the humans. Rowett was said to have made war the soils and drainage project was the 'enlightened and humane suggestion' troubled by loss of staff and by technical when giving his 'munificent donation' that problems, but the work on Isle of Wight when there were 'indications that work in Bee Disease made progress, and was certain directions might throw light on rewarded by additional private and human nutritional disorders, this work Development Commission funding.~°~ The might be allowed to carry on, even though soil research was handed over to the it had no direct bearing on the feeding of College in I921, ~°~ as was the bee disease farm animals', x°6 work a year later. ~°3 Orr returned to Aberdeen as a war hero and resumed his duties in February I919, VII vigorously setting about the establishment This paper has been prepared as part of a of an animal nutrition research institute, of larger project on the history of nutrition which he was designated director. The science during the twentieth century, a Development Commission agreed to match history in which a major role was played locally-raised funds, and the committee set by Orr and the Rowett. The story of the about fund raising. John Quiller Rowett, a rise and fall of the ARA helps both to school friend of R H A Plimmer, a bio- highlight the challenges that On" faced, and chemist who was recruited to the staff, first to elucidate the circumstances of the origins offered £50o towards the construction of and early development of the Rowett. experimental animal stalls) °4 Rowett was Both the ARA and the Rowett were a London-based businessman who had located at the centre of the same large thrived during the war, and following a agricultural region far from the decision- meeting with On: he increased his offer to making centres in Edinburgh and London. £Io,ooo. This meant the committee could The worlds of both Jamieson and Orr were plan an initial expenditure of up to populated by landowners, farmers, industri- £2o,ooo. The committee asked Rowett to alists, politicians, civil servants and scien- allow his name to be associated with the tists. Both faced the problems of raising institute, and when Rowett agreed, he funds and of relating not only to the distant expressed the hope that the institute would government bodies, but also to the local 'give valuable results in the subject of educational, scientific, social, and agricul- Animal Nutrition and, in due course ... tural establishments. While in Orr's era more government funding was available, iooj B Orr, 'The influence of excessive water ingestion on protein the success of applications for funds towards metabolism', BiochemicalJournal, 8, I9t4, pp 53o-4o. '°' RKI Minutes, JC Meeting, 3I Oct t9t8. ~°]I1A~.I Minutes, JC Meeting, 28 Sept I9Zl. Eventually, in I93o, '°}RRI, P.owett to Smith, 8 March 192o; JC Minutes, I5 March the Macaulay soil research institute was established in Aberdeen I92o. See also J B Orr, As I Recall, I966, pp 9I-2. with Development Commission backing: Russell, Agriadtural '°~Rowett Institute, First Report, Aberdeen, I922., pp I7-i8. Two Science, pp 452-8. years later Rowett committed suicide, after a serious downturn ,o3 RP.I Minutes, JC Meeting, 5 Oct I922. in his business fortunes: 'Obituary', Aberdeen Ut,iversity Review, '°4RRI, JC Minutes, lZ Feb I92O. XII, I925, p 95. THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 6I capital expenditure still depended upon setbacks: by this time, the agricultural success in raising funds from private scientific-administrative establishment was sources. becoming firmly entrenched. However, The ARJk appears to have been the Jamieson and the ARA retained sufficient product of co-operation between one indigenous support for a small grant to be chemist, and a group of aristocratic land- obtained, for a while, from funds adminis- owners, agricultural manufacturers and sup- tered locally. pliers, and politicians with a range of formal But the difficulties faced by Jamieson affiliations, with farmers cast largely in the and the ARA and may not be explainable role of consumers of the knowledge that entirely in terms of reaction to their maver- the Association was created to produceJ °7 ick activities. The resistance of the The AKA may be regarded as representa- Development Commission to the indepen- m. tive of progressive opinion of the dent planning of agricultural research in late Victorian period: the organization fav- Scotland, the single mention of Scotland oured state support of research, and in the plan agreed by the Commission and Jamieson's writings show an impulse to the Board of Agriculture, and the reluc- modernize agriculture, to disrupt the estab- tance to allow Scottish applications to lished rhythms of the countryside, and to the Development Fund for agricultural introduce the methods of science and the research, all suggest an attempt by the social organization of the town. central agricultural research establishment From the beginning Jamieson and the to retain research funds close to home, and ARA cast themselves as outsiders and chal- a general suspicion of the periphery. ~°s lengers to the nascent agricultural science The prevarication of the Development establishment in the south of England, but Commission over the Aberdeen College's after the 'battle of the phosphates', and application, and the support of the Board while state funding for agricultural research of Agriculture and the Commission for the was relatively modest, it appears to have establishment of animal nutrition research been largely assumed that these challenges at Leeds, may be further examples of the could be safely ignored. But as the scientific commissioners' attitude towards research in challenges became more fundamental, and Scotland. However, these features of the more vigorously pursued, and when the story, as well as the particular conditions prospect of much more extravagant expen- applied to Aberdeen, the formation of the diture by the state became apparent, joint committee and the need to consult Jamieson's claims were taken more seri- Cambridge and Leeds, may have been the ously: steps were taken to discredit his result of perceptions specifically concerning claims and to remove the respectability that the situation in Aberdeen - conditioned was conferred upon the ARA by an annual by past conflicts of the Board of Agriculture government grant. Jamieson's aristocratic and the Development Commission with allies proved powerless to reverse these Jamieson, and by the support that Jamieson still appeared to retain among some of the ,o7 There is nmch potential for further research into this organization. The investigation of the precise interests of manure manufacturers governors of the College. in the north-east of Scotland in promoting the use of ground mineral phosphates, for example, might further elucidate the nature of the alliance of interests upon which the organization was ori~nally based. The formation and survival of the Association, as well as the financial difficulties that it faced, and ,OSThis notion is reinforced by the history of the DC-supported the advent of governmental support, owed much to the agricul- plant breeding institutions: the DC resisted the establishment of tural depression of the late nineteenth century. But whether, a plant breeding institute near Edinburgh, preferring to have a how, and to what effect, the AlIA influenced farming practices single institute in Cambridge. See P Palladino, 'The political in the north-east of Scotland and beyond, awaits further research economy of applied research: plant breeding in Great Britain, and analysis. I9IO-I94o' , Minerva, 28, t99o, p 460. 62 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Just as the development and activities of During the i92os Orr also formed a the ARA depended very much upon the valuable alliance within central government initiative of Jamieson, the development of with Walter Elliot, MP, one-time the P,.owett depended very much upon the researcher at the Institute, who was Under- initiative of On:, but Orr proved much Secretary of State for Scotland in the more effective than Jamieson in building Conservative government of 1926-29 and and using powerful alliances both at the later Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, centre and locally. After the war Orr was Secretary of State for Scotland and Minister still required by the Development Com- of Health. This connection brought the mission to consult T B Wood, who had Rowett additional sources of public fund- become the sole director of the Animal Nu- ing for research in both human and animal trition l:kesearch Institute in Cambridge. I°9 nutrition from the Empire Marketing But Orr enjoyed a good relationship with Board. ~Is Wood and therefore this association work- While the intended function of the joint ed to his advantage. Wood, in turn, committee may have been to help ensure was close to Middleton and Hall. the effective deployment of Development Jamieson sought to create an identity for Commission funding, it brought together the AR.A by developing unique scientific a group of influential men at the periphery positions; similarly, Orr attempted to who helped to create a greater degree of develop a distinct research programme at autonomy from the government decision- the Rowett. But while Jamieson's unique making and funding bodies than othmwise positions implied continual challenge to would have been the case. On: enjoyed a and conflict with the most significant good relationship with the joint committee figures in the south, On: developed a which helped him to pursue his objectives. programme which brought him into an The support of men such as the principal alliance with Wood. The rZowett took up of Aberdeen University was of great assist- a concerted programme of research on the ance in Orr's money-raising efforts. In role of minerals in nutrition, I'° challenging addition, when Orr's two most senior the enthusiasm for the newly-discovered members of staff opposed the focus upon accessory food factors or vitamins which n-finerals and the sceptical position on vit- had arisen among some scientific, medical amins, his support by the joint committee and agricultural circles, following the work was such that the outcome of the ensuing of F G Hopkins and others. However Orr's conflicts resulted in the resignation of his sceptical position on vitamins was shared most senior member of staff and the ter- with Wood, tI~ and also with his former mination of the employment of the second colleagues in Glasgow. ~ most senior. ~14

'°gThe plans for building of animal nutrition research facilities at The work on minerals, which addressed Leeds were suspended during the war, and in 1919, the key problems of human as well as animal worker, C Crowther, left Leeds: see PRO, MAF 33, I7/TEI756, I7/A21385/I915, I7/TEI757 and Russell, Agricultural Science, p nutrition highlights a dimension to the "-53. The failure of the Leeds scheme may partly explain why the work of the 1Lowett which was not avail- development of animal nutrition at Aberdeen became more straightforward after the war. able to the A1LA. Such work was directed "°D F Smith, 'The early institutional and scientific development of towards the medical profession as well as the Rowett Research Institute' in A Adam, D F Smith and F Watson, eds, To the Greit Support and Advancement of Helth, to agriculture: Orr's world was also popu- Aberdeen, r996, pp 45-53. '"See On', As I Recall, p to7; Weatherall, 'Dunn Laboratory', pp 32-3. ,,3 See On., As I Recall, pp 90, IO9-I i. "~See D F Smith and M Nicolson, 'The "Glasgow School" of "~ D F Smith, 'Establishing a position: John Boyd Orr, the Rowett Paton, Findlay and Cathcart: Conservative thought in chemical Institute and minerals in nutrition: internal struggles I92o-32', physiology, nutrition and public health, Social Studies in Science, paper given at a conference at Aberdeen University, r July I995. I9, ~989, pp I95-a38. This paper is currently being prepared for publication. THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 63 lated by medical scientists, administrators committed to the programme of research and practitioners. As we have seen, Orr on minerals in nutrition Orr consistently was medically-qualified. The composition deployed the ideology of teamwork in of the joint committee also facilitated this science, ~s in line with the ideology which dimension of the P..owett's work. Matthew may be found in Development Com- Hay, medical officer of health for Aberdeen mission documents, "~ and in writings of was an original member of the joint com- men such as Hall. '~7 In this emphasis on mittee and he was later joined by J A teamwork, there is a striking contrast with MacWilliam, professor of physiology at the the views ofJamieson. Orr enthusiastically University of Aberdeen. embraced collectivism in science and was While, like Orr, Jamieson favoured state willing and able to develop the networks funding, Jamieson consistently emphasized necessary for him to take advantage of the the need for independent work by scien- opportunities offered by the increasing state tists, and expressed the view that scientific support for science of the twentieth advance was most likely to be the prod- century. uct of hard work by solitary scientists. The AKA's applications to the College ,,s See, for example, the document prepared by Orr proposing the of Agriculture and the Development development of an animal nutrition research institute: PRO, D2/26, Memorandum reasons for drafting and submitting scheme, Commission were simply for funds to sub- June I9t 9. sidize the organization, rather than to "~ For example, the DC's report for t92o quoted a memorandum submitted to the Treasury in Aug t9II which emphasized the advance particular research programmes. value of 'collaboration upon a single question of several men Due to the changed funding situation, Orr differently equipped': Tenth Report of the Devdopmet,t Commissioners for the Year ended the M March x92o, t92o, p t 9. was able to plan research on a much larger ,*v See, for example, A D Hall, 'The present position of research in scale. In assembling a group of researchers agriculture',jnl Roy Soc Arts, LXIX, 192I, pp 3oo-z2.