Mark Carlton

Wrote the The basis for the Improvement of American Wheats written for the USDA in 1900. Best known for his travels in Russia for the USDA and the resulting introduction of many hard red wheats and durum wheats.

John Percival (1863-1949)

John was a driving force behind the creation of agricultural botany as a scientific discipline and Professor of Agricultural Botany at the University of Reading from 1907 to 1932. His monumental treatment of wheat “The Wheat Plant: a Monograph” (1921) still serves as a standard reference, having been reprinted as recently as 1974. Percival was the consummate agricultural scientist – botanist, taxonomist, geneticist, germplasm collector, curator, breeder, agronomist, historian and teacher.  Download his book for Free.  The Wheat Plant

William James Farrer (1845 – 1906)

Wheat Breeder. “Farrer’s contributions extend beyond the provision of new wheats, since his systematic experimentation also added to scientific knowledge. Many years before the rediscovery of Mendelian principles of genetics, Farrer became aware of, and investigated, the heritable nature of disease resistance, of maturity and of grain-quality factors. He also discovered that they segregate independently, but that segregation only occurs in the second and subsequent generations after crossing.”