A new book launched today (Wednesday, October 16) tells the story of how the research centre at Johnstown Castle reinvented itself to become a leading environmental and soils research centre.
The book, ‘Soil Matters – The Story of Science at Johnstown Castle’ was written by a group of scientists: Noel Culleton, Brian Coulter and Matt Wheeler.
The book delves into the history of how research scientists at Johnstown Castle and its sister research stations developed the scientific knowledge that helped Irish agriculture to thrive.
It highlights how the research helped Ireland become what the authors describe as now a country of “successful production of low-cost, safe and wholesome food”.
The stories in the book date back to 80 years ago, to 1944, when Victor Lakin, head of an Anglo-Irish family gifted the Johnstown Castle estate to the Irish Nation.
Johnstown Castle
The estate was gifted, following a series of letters, which were recently uncovered between TD, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine at the time, and representatives of the owner.
One of the authors, Noel Culleton, who became head of Johnstown Castle Research Centre in 2006, told the story of when the castle was first taken over at today’s launch.
He said that during the 1940s and 1950s, agriculture in Ireland “was in a very sorry state”.
Crops were not growing anywhere near potential at the time, soil health was not in a good condition, and animals were dying from diseases due to lack of minerals in the soil, according to Culleton.
Culleton said that is was a “challenging time” and that the research helped the sector “significantly”.
The book not only tells the history of the castle, but also how soil research developed, the innovations formed in laboratories, and how agricultural activity productivity evolved.
It also provides details of the establishment of Teagasc, the recently emerging environmental challenges, and the new research agenda.
‘Soil Matters’
Author, Brian Coulter said: “The title of the book, ‘Soil Matters’ is very important, because you could say soil chemistry matters, soil biology matters, soil physics matter, but what it comes down to is soil quality.
“That is the modern term to encompass all of that. It is covered a small bit in the book, but the topic can be left for the next authors or the next book.”
The third author and curator of the Irish Agriculture Museum Matt Wheeler said that there were much more people involved in putting the book together than the names of the authors on the front page. He thanked everyone involved for their contributions.
The book is available for sale now, where all proceeds will go to further developments in research at Johnstown Castle.
The castle now has a collection of original farming-related machinery, vehicles, and artefacts, some of which date back around 100 years, along with exhibitions and recreated scenes.
This post was originally published on here
