Talk:Albert Howard

Publications, bibliography, and article development
Hello. After saving this section, I will be adding a 'Publications' section to the article, and listing one or two of Albert Howard's works, depending on what I can readily find. I may also have a go at creating a 'Bibliography' section, again, depending on what I can readily find.

Years ago I tried to track down a copy of Howard's book Soil and Health, along with various other publications by various authors, sending letters around the world to publishers and out-of-print booksellers. I obtained several books, but broadened the focus of my researches before I found Howard's book, and gave that pursuit away. Many publications which I painstakingly tracked down are now readily findable via the internet. So on finding some letters from that era of my life pertaining to my search for Howard's Soil and Health, I thought I'd see what's out there. Lo and behold, the book is available in preview version. So I checked Wikipedia, and found this stub article.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to dedicate time to building up the article. However, a good way to start is to create lists of publications for editors to utilise, which is where the 'Publications' and (depending on what I find after saving this) a 'Bibliography' section, can provide resources. In some senses, a 'Publications' section can end up overlapping in scope with either a 'Bibliography' and/or 'References' section.

A bibliography section comprises works which an article, book, etc, is expected (as in likely, not as in must) to draw upon. So it is a key starting point to any article or book. Only in hindsight can one say whether or not all listed sources were drawn upon. At that point, one can list any unused sources into a 'Further reading' section, if relevant. In a biographical article such as this, works published by the person, although drawn upon, apart from being properly referenced where cited, may be best left listed in the 'Publications' section, since a list of a person's publications constitutes an aspect of that person's biography. If this article is ever developed much, it may have, in the course of such development, three somewhat overlapping sections: 'Publications', 'Bibliography', and 'References'.

My suggestion would generally be to leave the 'Publications' section as mentioned above. Regarding the Bibliograpyy section, strictly speaking, a bibliograpy of a completed' article or book comprises all' sources that were used in the creation of said article or book. If that becomes the case in this article, then the 'references' section - which should remain - makes the bibliography section redundant, and you can remove it. Any works listed in the bibliography section that end up not being used, really comprise 'further reading', and so the section can be renamed 'Further reading'. The article may never get developed enough for these things to be contemplated. But if it does, at least I've provided some food for thought. Wotnow (talk) 02:15, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Merge proposal: An Agricultural Testament into article section
I strongly recommend the merging of the article stub An Agricultural Testament into a section of the same name in the Albert Howard article, for reasons that are self-evident upon examination.

The Agricultural Testament article has been a stub since its creation on 1 February 2004, just under a month after the Albert Howard article was created. Indeed, the Albert Howard article has remained a stub since its creation over 7 years ago. Neither article is likely to be developed to any extent any time soon. Both articles would thus benefit from being merged into one, slightly more substantial article about Albert Howard, with a section on his seminal work, the Agricultural Testament. In the very unlikely event that the section gets developed to the point of justifying its own article, it's just a matter of splitting. However, that is an unlikely scenario, and certainly not something that would happen any time soon. Wotnow (talk) 21:15, 9 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't see the harm in keeping the book stub, as it is referenced and Wikipedia is a work in progress. Gobonobo  T C 16:44, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Valuable source for life of Howard
Chapter 5 of Gieryn's Cultural boundaries of science describes previously unknown aspects of Howard's life, based on letters and other private documents that Gieryn unearthed. It's an extraordinary record of his evolution from Western-trained scientist to empirical agriculturist appreciate of the farming traditions of India. hgilbert (talk) 00:46, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Albert Howard. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100108223659/http://www.manofthetrees.org/HTMLS/reviews.htm to http://www.manofthetrees.org/HTMLS/reviews.htm

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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 07:02, 11 December 2017 (UTC)