Charles Darwin, Who Used the Work of Agriculturalists to Develop His Theory of Natural Selection, Seems Surprised That His Work Has Anything to Offer Them in Return

An agriculturalist is someone concerned with the science, art or business of cultivating the soil and raising livestock. He or she may be a farmer, cultivator, grower, or raiser, or someone who advises such people. Selective breeding of plants and animals, which are of interest to them, has been practiced since early prehistory. However, selective breeding was only established as a scientific practice by Robert Bakewell in the 18th century, when he became the first to implement systematic selective breeding of livestock. His advancements not only led to specific improvements in raising sheep, cattle, and horses, but contributed to the general knowledge and awareness of the field.

Charles Darwin was conversant with the work of Bakewell and his colleagues, and he described their method as artificial selection – artificial because generated by humans. This served as an inspiration for his theory of natural selection, which occurred without human intervention. Because artificial selection illustrated that changes in species were possible, it was a useful tool in the study of theories relating to evolution. Darwin wrote on the subject of domestication and cross-breeding a number of times, and in his magnum opus, “The Origin of Species”, Darwin mentioned Bakewell, and judged “slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do as much by artificial selection, I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and complexity of the co-adaptations between organic beings… which may have been affected in the long course of time through nature’s power of selection, that is by the survival of the fittest.” As author James Secord wrote, “The Origin is also a discourse on cabbages, cows, rabbits, and sheep-the products of domestication. The analogy between artificial and natural selection is central to the Origin”. To follow out its ramifications Darwin left his accustomed world of natural history, with its characteristic intellectual approaches and institutions, and ventured instead into one inhabited by those knowledgeable about the breeding of plants and animals.

This letter shows that, although Darwin borrowed from the artificial selection work of agriculturalists, he was surprised that his work on natural selection had much to offer the agriculturalists in return. The recipient is quite likely German naturalist and zoologist Wilhelm Breitenbach, from whom Darwin received a letter on April 17, 1879.

Autograph letter signed, on his Down letterhead, April 21, 1879. “I am much obliged for your courteous letter & for the gift of your articles, which I will soon read. It is very gratifying to me to hear that agriculturalists attend at all to my works. Yours faithfully, Charles Darwin.” He adds, “As I have great difficulty in reading German letters, I have been compelled to gum your address to the envelope of this note.”

It’s understandable to see how Darwin, was surprised to see his theories as a direct benefit to agriculture in 1879, but we see today that his work provided the impetus for scientists to reexamine the question of heredity and inheritance, leading to the appreciation of Mendel’s laws and the evolution of the field of genetics. This in turn led to methods to improve agricultural yields in corn and other crops, and development of insect resistant crops, among other boons to agriculture. There is even a book, “Darwinian Agriculture”, that explains how evolution improves agriculture.