A Short History of Scholarship in Horticulture and Pomology

Abstract

Literature about horticulture (fruits, flowers and vegetables) has long been produced by georgic writers and experts in agriculture. Generally it comprises testimony of experience and the desire to disseminate knowledge about plants and how to grow them. This has been true since ancient times and is particularly true of the Mediterranean area. Often, authors copied from their predecessors and the contents of a book were handed down over the centuries. This was the case until the mid-eighteenth century, when agriculture became the subject of scientific investigation and began to benefit from a knowledge of biology.

This chapter summarizes the writings of the Greeks (Theophrastus), Latin writers (Columella and Virgil), and then, moves forward about a thousand years, to the work of authors in the Middle Ages, often from Arabia and Italian sources (Ibn Al-Awwan and de’ Crescenzi), followed by the Renaissance (Aldrovandi) and then modern French (De la Quintinye) and Dutch (De Vries) and then to the more recent French and Italian sources (du Breuil and Gallesio).

In the nineteenth century, after the revolutions in the understanding of the workings of the universe (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton) and the fall of the old schools of philosophy and medicine, Europe began to produce numerous works on pomology and horticulture. The first studies were carried out on applied biology and physiology, together with investigations into reproduction and the fixing of characteristics by seed propagation and grafting. Frequently, the works described varieties (pomology), soil management, fertilization, irrigation and the influence of the environment on production.

The great leap in the quality and quantity of horticultural products came with the discovery of the synthesis of nitrogenized fertilizers and a proper understanding of photosynthesis, involving the acquisition by plants of carbon and the synthesis of organic matter. Knowledge was also acquired concerning the roles of water and the soil in plant growth and fruition. In these areas, horticulture benefited from the research of the Europeans (particularly in Germany) and Americans. The author has chosen about thirty authors, as representative of their age and for their significant contributions. The choice is subjective, of course, and some branches of knowledge may have been under-represented, but overall the hope is to achieve a fair balance, including some wrong turns and mistakes.

The green revolution changed agriculture—including fruit growing—in the second half of the twentieth century, introducing genetic research in pomology and agronomy. In addition to breeders, professionals included pomologists and geneticists, working along the lines established by Darwin and Mendel, and making positive contributions from the first decades of the twentieth century onwards. Agronomists, physiologists and biochemists have also contributed, enabling the application of new technologies in orchard management. In modern times, bio-technologists, molecular biologists, mechanical and plant engineers enabled hitherto unthinkable results to be achieved at the end of the twentieth century, in line with the new philosophy of eco-sustainable growth, preventing an excessive dependence on polluting chemicals and the use of non-renewable energy sources, which might have compromised expectations and the future of the next generations. Our investigations end at the beginning of the twentieth century. What follows would deserve a chapter of its own (Sansavini, L’agricoltura verso il terzo millennio attraverso i grandi mutamenti del XX secolo, pp. 307–382, 2002 and Sansavini, European horticultural challenges in a global economy: role of technological innovations, Chronica Hort. 53(4): pp. 6–14, 2013).