Haberlandt, Friedrich

Born Feb. 21, 1826, in Bratislava; died May 1, 1878, in Vienna. Austrian naturalist. Father of G. Haberlandt.

Haberlandt graduated from an agricultural school in Mosonmagyaróvár in 1849; in 1851 he became research assistant and in 1853, professor at the agricultural institute established in 1850 on the basis of the school. He became director of a sericulture station in Görz in 1869 and professor of botany at the Higher Agricultural School in Vienna in 1872. In opposition to the prevailing trend toward chemistry in agronomy, Haberlandt solved problems of farming and plant breeding through plant physics and physiology. He investigated all phases of the development of agricultural crops and the influence of external factors on them, the dependence of the water-retaining properties of the soil on temperature, destruction of crops by frost, and so forth. Haberlandt wrote works on artificial irrigation, acclimatization, sericulture, pest control, and other subjects.