Like farmhouses and land, the knowledge of farming was passed down from father to son. Farmers knew from experience which soil was more fertile and which fertilizer produced a higher yield. They had learned which crop rotation systems prevented soil exhaustion and reduced the risk of disease. They reproduced this knowledge for generation after generation. Improvements and innovations were ascribable to their own acute powers of observation and to chance rather than to the application of any insights based on scientific discoveries.

Someone like Jacob Krelage, who farmed his land well, could afford to build a study and pore over scholarly treatises. Those with less money to spare continued to rely on timeless common sense [which the Dutch call boerenverstand, ‘farmers’ sense’– transl.], crop rotation, avoiding infected soil, removing diseased plants (or parts of plants) as quickly as possible, using healthy specimens for their further cultivation, good water management, sufficient fertilizer. The meagre provision of agriculture education was a luxury, and agriculture research even more so.

This situation changed dramatically towards the end of the nineteenth century. The change was precipitated first and foremost by the enormous crisis in agriculture into which European agriculture was plunged by the dumping of cheap grain from the United States, vast cargoes of which had been imported since the advent of ocean-going steamers. Germany and France closed their borders to the cheap grain in response, and the Dutch government appointed a special commission to study the problem. In its conclusions, in 1886, the commission asserted that government has a role in the development of agriculture. The Hague would have to abandon its outmoded laissez-faire policies and provide incentives for agriculture: it should set up research stations as well as an agriculture and horticulture information service, and provide for ade- quate education and research in agriculture.

At the same time, the pressing threat of disease compelled European governments to take action. Besides passengers, crews and crops, the gigantic ocean steamers also carried pathogens. If these tiny stowaways landed in areas with favourable habitats and none of their natural enemies, they could multiply and spread unchecked, colonizing the new continent as true conquerors, with no regard for national borders and disdaining the desperation of farmers, the fury of landowners and the power of politicians.