W. G. Cochran's Catalogue of Uniformity Trial Data

Published in 1937 in the Supplement to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, W. G. Cochran’s catalogue of uniformity trial data is an annotated bibliography of over one hundred and thirty agricultural experiments conducted worldwide to provide information on the optimal size and shape of field plots and the relative efficiencies of different types of experimental designs. The making of the catalogue mobilized a network of correspondents that crossed Asia, Africa, North America and Europe offering an insight into the circulation of experimental results in agricultural science. In this talk I will address both the value of uniformity trials for statistics applied to agricultural research and the role of data in agricultural science.