Max Fesca (31 March 1846 – 31 October 1917) was a German specialist in agricultural science and

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

, hired by the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as a foreign advisor from 1882–1894.

Biography

Fesca was born in Soldin,

Neumark The Neumark (), also known as the New March ( pl, Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945. Call ...

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

(modern Myślibórz, Poland) as the son of a post office manager. From 1868 he studied agriculture and

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

, and moved in 1873 to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. His thesis in

agricultural chemistry Agricultural chemistry is the study of chemistry, especially organic chemistry and biochemistry, as they relate to agriculture—agricultural production, the processing of raw products into foods and beverages, and environmental monitoring and r ...

was based on the physical composition of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

leaves. He then worked for three semesters as a teaching assistant at the University of Halle. At the end of 1874 he returned to Göttingen and qualified as an expert on soil sciences. In 1875, he made a research tour of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, publishing a book on his return. By the summer of 1882 Fesca was a lecturer at the Agricultural Institute of the University of Göttingen.

Life in Japan

However, in late 1882, Fesca received an offer by the Japanese government to head the Agronomic Division by the Geological Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

with a focus on improving on the techniques and

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

Japanese agriculture Agriculture, farming, and fishing (Japanese: 農林水産, ''nōrinsuisan'') form the primary sector of industry of the Japanese economy together with the Japanese mining industry, but together they account for only 1.3% of gross national prod ...

. He also taught courses at the Komaba Agricultural School (which later merged into

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

) in

Meguro, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character, but is also home to light industry, corporate ...

. Fesca found that the relatively low productivity of the Japanese farmer compared with German farmers was not due to small size of their land plots as was commonly suggested, but due to shallow

tillage Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...

methods which required the extensive use of

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s that farmers often could not afford. This was compounded by a poor understanding of

crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant ...

, and lack of heavy

draft animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...

s to permit deep tillage. Fesca came to be regarded as the “father of modern Japanese agriculture" through his introduction of new farm implements, deep tillage methods, crop rotation and new seeds. During his time in Japan, he faced a constant uphill struggle against the ''Rōnō'' ("expert farmers"), a hereditary title granted by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

to farmers with exceptional skill or local knowledge. While these farmers formed the backbone of traditional agricultural methods and their local knowledge was invaluable, their insistence on traditional time-proven methods formed a strong conservative resistance to the new western agricultural methods Fesca attempted to introduce. During his time in Japan, Fesca made a comprehensive survey of agriculture in the province of Kai (later renamed as

Yamanashi prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the ...

), and also wrote a number of technical papers on the

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

of wild grasslands in the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

. In 1890, he published ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss der japanischen Landwirtschaft'', based on his experiences in Japan.University of Hokkaido Library
Agricultural conditions
. Fesca returned to Germany in 1894, receiving on the completion of his many years in Japan the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

(4th class) and

Order of the Sacred Treasures The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest tw ...

(3rd class), from

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

. On his way back to Germany, he visited

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

, and

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

examining tropical agricultural practices. From 1894-1895, he lectured at his alma mater, the University of Göttingen. In 1897, he accepted a post as lecturer in

tropical agriculture Worldwide more human beings gain their livelihood from agriculture than any other endeavor; the majority are self-employed subsistence farmers living in the tropics. While growing food for local consumption is the core of tropical agriculture, ...

at the

Agricultural University of Berlin The Agricultural University of Berlin (german: Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin) was an agricultural university in Berlin, Germany. Established in 1881, it was closed in 1934, and incorporated as a faculty into the Humboldt University of Ber ...

and during the 1899/1900 winter semester, he lectured at the Agricultural University of Bonn-Poppelsdorf. From 1901, Fesca worked as a professor of tropical agriculture at the German Colonial School in

Witzenhausen Witzenhausen is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974, it was a district seat. The University of Kassel maintains a satellite campus in Witzenhausen at which i ...

. He lectured on crops, climate, soils and fertilizers as well as animal husbandry. From 1910 to 1914 he taught at the German Colonial Institute in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. His last years were spent in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. Fesca published numerous articles on tropical agriculture in the

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

''Tropical Plants''. He completed a three-volume textbook on crop production in the tropics and subtropics, ''Der Pflanzenbau in den Tropen und Subtropen'', shortly before his death in 1917.

Selected works

* Fesca, Max. (1894). ''Die Aufgaben und die Thaetigkeit der agronomischen Abtheilung der kaiserl. japanischen geologischen Landesaufnahme.'' Yokohama.Wenckstern, Frederich. (1895)
''A Bibliography of the Japanese Empire,'' p. 175.
/ref> * ___________. (1890–1893)
''Beiträge zur Kenntniss der japanischen Landwirtschaft,''
2 vols. Berlin: Paul Paley.

Notes

References

* Wenckstern, Frederich. (1895)
''A Bibliography of the Japanese Empire: To which is Added a Facsimile-reprint of: Léon Pagès, «Bibliographie Japonaise Depuis Le XVe Siècle Jusqu'á 1859».''
Leiden:

E.J. Brill Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fesca, Max 1846 births 1919 deaths People from Myślibórz People from the Province of Brandenburg Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan Foreign educators in Japan German expatriates in Japan Agriculture in Japan Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure