Paul Brassley

On the unrecognized significance of the ephemeral landscape

Abstract This paper argues that the ephemeral components of the landscape have a significant, but hitherto unrecognized, effect upon the way in which it is perceived and evaluated. These ephemeral components, or landscape ephemera, are those which change with the weather, the seasons, the growth and decay of plants, the choice of farm crop, and so on. Their nature is explored, and they are contrasted with the more permanent components of the landscape, such as hedges, trees, buildings, etc. The importance of these changes is discussed in relation to landscape preference theories and the work of artists in various media. It is argued that landscape regulation and the landscape literature have largely ignored such changes, and it is tentatively suggested that further research and discussion on the topic might have some interesting results for landscape evaluation and planning.

Agricultural research in Britain, 1850–1914: Failure, success and development

Summary The development of agricultural science in the period 1850–1914 is described in the context of various methods of deciding whether or not it was successful. It is concluded that it was more successful after 1890 than before, and an explanation of this is offered, using a model first applied to agricultural research in Germany. In the light of these conclusions there are also comments on the role of the Development Commission in promoting agricultural research.

The Professionalisation of English Agriculture

Following Perkins suggestion that western European society is increasingly professionalised, and given the emergence of a stratum of large commercial farms in twentieth-century England, this paper examines the contention that, to some extent at least, English agriculture has been professionalised over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It briefly surveys the literature on professionalisation, identifies a list of professional characteristics, and then tests the attributes of twentieth-century English farmers against this list. It also briefly examines the effects of professionalisation, and concludes that, although it would be excessively simplistic to claim that the whole industry has been professionalised, it is possible to identify professional groups.