National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Huntingdon Road Cambridge

Huntingdon Road, before the building of the great seed testing station known as the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, had already attained agricultural distinction. In it lives Professor Biffen, whose experiments in wheat breeding gave the first impulse to the movement which has resulted in this establishment. He has earned the gratitude of farmers for many breeds of wheat as valuable as they were unexpected—Little Joss and Yeoman, to name but two out of many. When Sir Lawrence Weaver went to the Board, now the Ministry, of Agriculture his business eye recognised two weaknesses that needed to be remedied. He perceived at a glance that scientific research and experiment aiming at the improvement of our cereals was one department of activity. The growing of the new breeds, their early cultivation, and the accumulation of stocks in sufficient quantities to place on the market, was another. The two stood wide apart. It was uneconomical and unsatisfactory to the last degree that scientific brains should be cumbered with commercial responsibilities. Besides, the said brains could be employed to better purpose. A wide field for extending research stretches out in front of them. For example, the improvement of roots falls little short in importance of the improvement of cereals.

... We have been concerned chiefly with the work and aims of the Institute and have said very little about the rooms. ‘The building itself does every credit to Mr. Morley Horder, the architect. Over-ornament would have been a fatal defect, but the plan adopted is, in point of fact, one of severe simplicity. Chere is just enough suggestion of a collegiate building without any attempt to reproduce the atmosphere of the Cambridge colleges. We would call it a sober but excellent piece of building.‘The only room in which ornamentation has been liberally introduced is the Council Chamber. Even here there is not the lightest suggestion of the florid. The walls are beautifully but austerely panelled with sycamore, and a place is left in the panelling for portraits of those to whose energy or liberality 1e building of the Institute is due. [Country Life 15 October 1921 page 471-473]

Royal Academy    1919 No 1364 National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge
Reference           Times 15 October 1921 page 10 – Royal visit
Reference           Country Life 15 October 1921 page 471-473