author
Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher
1872–1933
Best known for writing about plant chemistry and soils, this American agriculturist helped bring scientific thinking to everyday farming. His work linked the lab and the field at a time when agriculture was becoming a modern science.
1 Audiobook
The Chemistry of Plant Life
by Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher
About the author
Born around 1872 and raised on a farm in Chatham Center, Ohio, Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher built his career around the science of agriculture. He studied at the University of Nebraska and went on to become an educator, researcher, and agricultural leader whose work focused on soils, plant nutrition, and practical farming problems.
Thatcher wrote and contributed to books and bulletins that made scientific agriculture more accessible, including The Chemistry of Plant Life. He was also associated with agricultural experiment station work and later served in major academic leadership roles, including at Washington State College and the University of Idaho.
He died on December 6, 1933. Today, he is remembered as one of the early American agricultural scientists who helped explain how plants grow and how soil chemistry shapes successful farming.