John Noble Jack (usually referred to as J. Noble Jack), agriculturalist, was the son of Donald Jack and his wife Margaret Noble. He was appointed principal of the College of Agriculture at Elsenburg, near Stellenbosch, from 27 January 1905. That year he conducted some experiments dealing with the fertilization of oat hay on vlei and hillside land. The results were reported in "The manuring of oathay at Elsenburg College", published in the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope (1906, Vol. 28, pp. 574-580). Jack resigned his post in June 1907 and was appointed as director of agriculture of the Cape of Good Hope. In this capacity he published an article on "Arable farming" in the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope (1908, Vol. 33(3), pp. 291-296) which dealt mainly with the economics of cereal production.

By 1910 Jack was living in Caledon and had become a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He married Grace Hirsch in Cape Town in December 1916 and they had at least one son.

List of sources:

Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, 1906, Vol. 28 and 1908, Vol. 33.

Department of Agricultural Technical Services, Winter Rainfall Region. Elsenburg: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Commemorative edition, 1898-1978 (p. 11).

FamilySearch: John Noble Jack. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/M9TW-VKK/john-noble-jack-1873-1948

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Jack, John Noble / Jack, J. Noble.

Report of the principal of the College of Agriculture, Elsenburg. In Cape of Good Hope [Colony], Report of the Director of Agriculture, 1905-1907.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1910, list of members.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-12-06 09:15:25