Food & agriculture · 1840

Agricultural chemistry

Justus von Liebig showed plants feed on mineral nutrients, and yield is capped by the scarcest.

Liebig's 1840 book on chemistry applied to agriculture identified nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as key plant nutrients and popularised the law of the minimum. It launched the fertilizer industry and field-trial science such as Rothamsted in 1843.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Conservation of mass 1789
Scientific method 1620

What it led to 3

Guano fertilizer 1840
Haber-Bosch process 1910
Hydroponics 1929

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

People fed by synthetic nitrogen fertilizer Latest: 8.09B people (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Cereal yields in England/UK since 1275 Latest: Wheat: 7.28 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Cereal yield Latest: 4.21 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data