Spencer Pickering, and The Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, 1894-1921.

One of the key figures in the revival of interest in allelopathy in the twentieth century was the Englishman, S. U. Pickering (Willis 1994, 1997). Percival Spencer Umfreville Pickering1 (1858-1920; Figure 9.1) was born into an upper middle-class family, and as a youth he had the luxury of pursuing his interest in chemistry within a private laboratory at home. He eventually attended Oxford and had a relatively distinguished academic career, which culminated in an academic appointment in chemistry at Bedford College, Oxford, and ultimately in his becoming Professor of Chemistry there in 1886. In 1878 Pickering had lost his right eye, which he had initially damaged as a youth in a chemistry accident. In any case, Pickering suffered continuing poor health, and he also became disillusioned through the indifferent reception of his chemical research, which focused largely on the nature of aqueous solutions. He resigned from Bedford College in 1887, although he maintained a private interest in chemistry until about 1896. He recuperated routinely in the country at Harpenden in Hertfordshire, and to relieve any sense of idleness, he became a part-time labourer at the nearby Rothamsted Agricultural Station. He eventually decided that the lifestyle suited him, and he bought a small property in Harpenden in 1885, where he learned the rudiments of farming and horticulture, and which became his permanent home from 1902 onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]