Karl Snell (crop scientist)

Karl Snell (born January 19, 1881 in Essen , † June 19, 1956 in Locarno ) was a German crop scientist . As an excellent connoisseur of all German potato varieties, he discovered the variety-specific differences in the light germs growing in daylight in the potato tuber and developed a light germ test to determine the authenticity of potato varieties.

Life path

Snell studied pharmacy and botany at the University of Munich from 1903 and received his doctorate there in 1907 with a thesis on the nutrient uptake of aquatic plants. From 1907 to 1911 he was an assistant at the Botanical Institute of the Agricultural Academy Bonn-Poppelsdorf. Here he examined the occurrence of germinable weed seeds in arable soils. In 1907/08 he became a member of the Hamburgia Cologne Landsmannschaft .

From 1919 Snell worked as an employee of Otto Appel at the Research Institute for Potato Growing in Berlin-Steglitz. In 1924 he became head of the department for variety science at the Biological Reich Institute for Agriculture and Forestry in Berlin-Dahlem. In 1934 he also took over the management of the botanical department of this research institute. Since 1946 Snell carried the official title of professor. In 1950 he retired.

Research services

Snell's main area of ​​work was the system of varieties of agricultural crops. The main research object was the potato . In 1921 he published the results of his first comprehensive morphological studies on the potato varieties then on the market in Germany in the text " Potato varieties. Descriptive varieties ". With this publication and with a monograph on the potato plant published in 1922, he made a name for himself as a potato expert. In the following years he worked as a "reformer" of the cultivar system. Together with Ernst Klapp and other potato researchers, he succeeded in significantly reducing the huge variety of German potato varieties.

Snell's particular merit is the discovery of the varietal differences in the light germs in the potato tuber. The method he developed to determine the potato varieties by the characteristics of their light germs (shape, color, hairiness) was first described in 1927 in the publication " The light germ test for determining the varietal authenticity of potatoes ". His method has been used in the practice of the German potato industry for several decades and has also received great attention and recognition internationally. Studies on the different susceptibility of potato varieties to diseases were reflected in an image atlas of cancer-resistant potato varieties in 1929.

All of these research results formed the basis for his book " The potato varieties of the Reichsortenliste, their recognition, differentiation and economic evaluation ", which he developed together with Hans Geyer , of which ten editions were published between 1935 and 1948. To a limited extent, Snell has also carried out variety systematic studies on other agricultural crops (cereals and pulses and fodder beets).

Fonts

• About the occurrence of germinable weed seeds . In: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 43, 1912, pp. 323–347.
• Potato varieties. Descriptive cultivar . Publishing house Paul Parey Berlin 1921, 4th edition 1929, supplements 1932 a. 1941 = Work of the Research Institute for Potato Growing at the Biological Reich Institute for Agriculture and Forestry H. 5.
• The potato. History, construction and life phenomena, use and cultivation of Solanum tuberosum L. with a description of the breeding sites of the German potato, the potato varieties and the potato diseases . Publisher Th. Fisher Freiburg i. Br. 1922 = Natural Treasures of Homeland Vol. 3.
• The light germ test to determine the varietal authenticity of potatoes . Paul Parey publishing house in Berlin 1927; 2nd edition 1932 = communications from the Biological Reich Institute for Agriculture and Forestry H. 34.
• Crab-resistant potato varieties and the susceptible varieties often confused with them . Publishing bookstore Paul Parey Berlin 1929 = Parey's pocket atlases No. 7.
• The potato varieties in the Reichsortenliste, their recognition, differentiation and economic evaluation (with Hans Geyer). Publishing house Paul Parey Berlin 1935; 10th edition. 1948. An 11th edition, edited by Snell alone, entitled The approved German potato varieties , was published in 1952 by the same publisher.

literature

• News sheet of the German Plant Protection Service vol. 2, 1950, p. 80 u. Vol. 8, 1956, p. 160.
• Professor Dr. Karl Snell in honor of the memory . In: Der Kartoffelbau Vol. 7, 1956, p. 161 (with picture).

swell

1. ^ Berthold Ohm and Alfred Philipp (eds.): Directory of addresses of the old men of the German Landsmannschaft. Part 1. Hamburg 1932, p. 189.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Snell in the catalog of the German National Library