Historical Background of soil fertility

• Agriculture was develop at 10,000 years ago

and it has undergone significant
developments since the time of earliest
civilization.
• Evidence points to the Fertile Crescent of the
Middle East as the site of the earliest planned
sowing and harvesting of plants that had
previously been gathered in the wild.
1. EARLY ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE

• Humans Originally Hunters &

Gatherers
• Cultivation for Food Allowed Humans
to Convert to More Settled Existence
in Villages & then Cities
• Identifying the exact origin of
agriculture remains problematic
because the transition from hunter-
gatherer societies began thousands
of years before the invention of
writing.
Farming and agriculture of Egypt
and Mesopotamia

Early Organized Agriculture

Early Organized Agriculture
• Evidence of early organized agriculture in
MESOPOTAMIA (IRAQ)
– Writing Dates to 2,500 BC Mention Soil
Fertility
– Fertility Due to Annual Flooding
Mesopotamia
• It is located in modern Iraq and is the
eastern end of an area of land called the
"fertile crescent" a land of abundance in
ancient times.
• The two rivers deposited fertile silt on
the land when they overflowed their
banks.
• MESOPOTAMIA, Near East and
The Fertile Crescent
– Widely regarded as the “cradle of
civilization,”
– the source of Mediterranean and
Middle East civilization and the
foundational for much of Western
civilization and a great deal of
Eastern civilization
Near East
• The Near East was traditionally used
to describe the region between the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean
to present-day Afghanistan.
• The United Nations used the term
Near east, Middle East and West Asia.
• 6000 years ago civilization emerged in
Mesopotamia -
– the Ancient Greek name meaning the
land "between the rivers" is used today
to describe the valley between the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers which
nurtured the first urban civilization, the
Sumerians.
Tigris and Euphrates
• The Tigris and Euphrates are two of the
world’s most famous rivers.
–The Tigris River is about 1,200 miles
(1950 kilometers) long and originates
in the mountains of southern Turkey
and enters Iraq near the spot where
Iraq, Turkey and Syria meet.
Tigris and Euphrates

• The Euphrates is about 1,300

miles (2100 kilometers) long and
originates in the mountains of
central Turkey and flows a
considerable distance through
Turkey and Syria before it enters
western Iraq.
Tigris and Euphrates
Fertility Due to Annual Flooding

• Silt from the Tigris and Euphrates

rivers has built a long, fertile
alluvial plain, and a large delta
and vast marshes.
• The area around the rivers has
been heavily irrigated since
Mesopotamian times.
Early Organized Agriculture

• Evidence of early organized

agriculture in
MESOPOTAMIA (IRAQ)
–System of Canals Built for Crop
Irrigation
•6000 BC-Irrigation aids farming

• In the Zana Valley of the Andes

Mountains in Peru.
– Archeologist found remains
of 3 irrigation canals.
– These canal s are the earliest
records of irrigation canals in
the new world.
Early Organized Agriculture
• Evidence of early organized
agriculture in
MESOPOTAMIA (IRAQ)
–‘Slash & Burn’ Necessary to Develop
Lands without Access to Rivers
Slash & Burn Agriculture
• the process of cutting
down the vegetation
in a particular plot of
land, setting fire to the
remaining foliage, and
using the ashes to
provide nutrients to
the soil for use of
planting food crops.
 Slash & Burn Agriculture
• this type of
agriculture also
known as shifting
cultivation.
• Generally, the following steps are taken in slash
and burn agriculture:
1. Prepare the field by cutting down vegetation;
plants that provide food or timber may be left
standing.
2. The downed vegetation is allowed to dry until
just before the rainiest part of the year to ensure
an effective burn.
3. The plot of land is burned to remove
vegetation, drive away pests, and provide a burst
of nutrients for planting.
4. Planting is done directly in the ashes left after
the burn.
•Cultivation (the preparation of land
for planting crops) on the plot is done
for a few years, until the fertility of the
formerly burned land is reduced.
• The plot is left alone for longer than it
was cultivated, sometimes up to 10 or
more years, to allow wild vegetation to
grow on the plot of land.
•When vegetation has grown again, the
slash and burn process may by
repeated.
• MESOPOTAMIA is often considered to be
the oldest civilization in the world because
of its size, organization and its
contributions to world culture.
– It was founded in present-day Iraq, Turkey,
Syria and Iran between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers during the forth millennia
B.C.
• Writing • large-scale beer
• irrigation production
agriculture • written laws
• state-sponsored
• large scale trade
warfare
• the upper class • the organized
• the wheel production of
• mathematics handcrafted goods
were all developed
• astronomythe 60- and pioneered in
second minute Mesopotamia.
• the 60-minute
hour,
Mesopotamian Geography
Strategically situated in the heart of the Near East and northeastern
part of the Middle East,

Mesopotamia was located

south of Persia (Iran) and
Anatolia (Turkey), east of
ancient Egypt and the
Levant (Lebanon, Israel,
Jordan and Syria) and
east of the Persian Gulf.
–.
• Mesopotamian Geography
– Much of the agricultural land is in the fertile
valleys and plains between the Tigris and
Euphrates and their tributaries.
– Much of the agricultural land was irrigated.
• The forest are found predominantly in the
mountains. Mesopotamian Geography
– Occupied by desert and alluvial plains,
– modern Iraq is the only country in the Middle
East that has good supplies of water and oil.
– Most of the water comes Tigris and Euphrates.
– The majority of modern Iraq is live in cities in the
fertile Tigris and Euphrates River valley between
the Kuwait border and Baghdad.
Fertile Crescent

• The Fertile Crescent is region of

fertile irrigated land that stretched
across Mesopotamia and reached
down the Mediterranean coast and
included present-day Iran, Syria,
southeastern Turkey, Lebanon and
Israel.
Fertile Crescent
• The abundance of food grown in the rich mud
in the fertile crescent made it possible for
large numbers of people to live together in
cities.
• Population growth and a surplus of food led
to specialization of labor and the leisure time
necessary for civilization.
Fertile Crescent

• The Fertile Crescent gave birth to the

Judaism and Christianity and shaped
Muslims-Arab culture.
• The Levant is the “land flowing with milk
and honey.” It usually referred to an area
occupied by Israel, Lebanon, Jordan,
western Syria and northern Arabia.
Fertile Crescent

• The fertile land around the Tigris and

the Euphrates was the product of
alluvial material and silt deposited by
the rivers when they flooded in the
spring.
• So fertile was the land it gave birth to
story of the Garden of Eden.
Fertile Crescent

• The fertile land was greatly coveted

by the nomadic tribes that lived
around it in Arabia, Turkey and Iran.
• Periodically they sweep down out of
their homelands and try to claim
parts it.
Fertility Due to Annual Flooding

• In the north the rivers usually stay

within their banks.
• In the south and east the rivers have
traditionally flooded in the spring.
• Some barriers have been built to
prevent this from happening near
populated areas.
Fertility Due to Annual Flooding

• Snow melt in the mountains in

Anatolia in the spring causes the
Tigris and Euphrates to rise.
• The Tigris floods from March to
May: the Euphrates, a little later.
Some the floods are intense and the
rivers overflow their banks and
change course.
Stone Age Mesopotamia
• Around 10,000 years ago, people that lived in
what is now Turkey and northern Iraq began
migrating southward.
• They hunted deer, gazelles, onagers and wild
sheep and goats, gathered wild grasses such
as wild barely and wheat and were beginning
to herd sheep and goats, build simple
dwellings and raised crops.
• 8000 BC evidence for cattle herding
• The archeological records for the
domestication of wild forms of
cattle(Bos primigenius) indicates that
the process occurred independently.
• People kept cattle around for easy
access to food, including milk, blood
and meat and for load-bearers and
plows.
• Herding is used in agriculture to manage
domesticated animals.
– A group of cattle or other domestic animals of a
single kind kept together for a specific purpose
– is the act of bringing individual animals together
into a group (herd), maintaining the group and
moving the group from place to place—or any
combination of those.
Domestication

• means to train or
adapt (an animal
or plant) to live
in a human
environment and
be of use to
humans.
• The taurine (humpless, B. taurus)
was probably domesticated
somewhere in in the fertile crescent
about 8,000 years ago.
• Taurine cattle were apparently
traded across the planet and appear
in archeological sites of northeastern
Asia (china, Mongolia, Korea) about
5000 years ago.
• Evidence of domesticated zebu (humped
cattle, B indicus) has been discovered at the
site of Mehrgahr, about 7000 years ago.
• The earliest domesticated cattle in Africa have
been found in Capeletti, Algeria, about 6500
BP, but Bos remains are found at African sites
in what is now Egypt. These represents the
first event of domestication of cattle.
 Mehrgahr is the Indus Valley of
Pakistan
• is one of the world's
earliest urban
civilizations, along with
its contemporaries,
• Mesopotamia and
• Ancient Egypt.
Early farming village in Mehrgarh,
c. 7000 BCE, with houses built
Shown within Pakistan with mud bricks.
 Development of Agriculture

• According to the Bible, Cain and

Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve,
developed agriculture and
domesticated animals, “Now
Abel was a keeper of sheep, and
Cain a tiller of the ground,” the
Bible reads.
7000 BC Cultivation of wheat and barley; animals
are domisticated.
• One of the most neolithic (7000 to 3200 BC) sites
in archeology
• One of the earliest sites with evidence of
farming (wheat and Barley) and herding (cattle,
sheep and goats) in South Asia. By 7000 BC,
sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia
and there, in the super fertile soil just north of
the Persian Gulf.
• Sumerian ingenuity systematized it and scaled it
up.
First Mesopotamian Civilizations –
System of Canals Built for Crop Irrigation

• After agriculture and herding were invented,

population expanded and people were
freed from foraging for food and were
able to develop complex technologies
and social organizations that gave them
an edge over the people who didn’t have
these advances.
Summed-Up
• The Nile River helped farming and agriculture
in Egypt.
• Nile River is the longest river in the world.
• Farmers sophisticated irrigation systems and
used dikes to maximize the use of the Nile
River.
• The Nile River helped the Egyptians by
supplying water for the farmers and their
family.
Summed-Up
• Economy was based on wheat and grains.
• Irrigation led to an increased food supply.
• They also used wooden plows led by a pair of oxen,
• but by 2800 BC, they learned how to make bronze
tools. They used tools made of flint to cut wheat.
• They threw seed into the ground to grow fruit and
vegetables. Farmers led farm animals loose to
trample seeds into soil.
Summed-Up
• Mesopotamians depended on the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers.
• Farmers raised grain, fruit, vegetables, and barn
yard animals.
• Mesopotamia wheat and barley were most
important grown crops by the Sumerians.
• They plowed ground with stone hoes. The metal
plows had a funnel shape. They filled containers
with seeds. Cows would pull plow seed and the
seeds would go into the ground.
Summed-Up
• The silt left over from the flooding of these rivers made
the soil fertile.
• Irrigation produced an extra supply of food.
• Farmers would trade would trade grain for lumber and
stone. Farmers didn't have money so they used their
crops.
• The climate of the Mesopotamia was dry. There was very
little rainfall. Farmers had to do find ways to find water
for their crops.
•
Summed-Up
• In the spring and early summer, melting snow from
the northern mountains to overflow the crops.
• The floods were violent and unpredictable. They
destroyed villages and took many lives.
Summed-Up
• Mesopotamia and Egypt are on different continents,
they still have similarities.
• Egypt and Mesopotamia are that the river(s)
provided silt to help their crops grow.
• Irrigation helped both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
• Irrigation helped them get a surplus, or extra, supply
of food.
Summed-Up
• The first great civilization arose in the two
regions. Egypt and Mesopotamia both have fertile
land, but neither received enough rain to grow
crops.
• By 3000 BC., farmers invented plow the oxen could
pull.
• The extra supply of food helped people to give up
farming and live in the city.
• Also by 3000 BC., Egypt and Mesopotamia
developed the world's first large-scale irrigation
system.
2. GOLDEN AGE OF GREEKS
• The age of the Greeks, from 800 to
200 B.C., was a "Golden Age" and
during this early period
several historians and writers
referred to the use of manure on
crops and adjusting the amounts for
thin and rich soils.
• Use of city sewage on vegetable
crops and olive groves and a canal
system for delivering the sewage to
fields was described in these ancient
writings.
• Manures were also classified
according to their value for crop
production.
• These same early Greek writers
recognized the value of green manure
crops, particularly legumes. Many
of these ancients rated lupine as the best
general-purpose green-manure crop
because it grew well under a wide range
of soil conditions, furnished food for man
and beast, was easy to seed and quick to
grow.
• The value of marl and plant ashes for
enriching the soil was recognized in both the
Greek and the following Roman civilizations.
• Applications of ashes or lime were
recommended to correct acidity in lowland
soils.
• Mineral fertilizers were not entirely
unknown in past civilizations since mixing of
different earths for "remedying defects and
adding heart to the soil" was recommended
by one of the early Greek writers.
• Fertilization of plants with saltpeter or
potassium nitrate was mentioned in both
early Greek and Roman teachings and in
the book of Luke in the Bible.
• The Greeks reported the use of salt
brines with applications being made
around the roots of palm trees.
Golden Age of Greeks
(Summary)
•800-200 BC
•Manure Increased Productivity
•Green Manure Crops Enriched Soil
•Liming (Marl) Increased Productivity
•Wood Ashes Beneficial
•KNO3 Beneficial to Plants
•Saline Soils Could Be Detected by Taste Test
3. PIETRO DE CRESCENZI

• Roman, 1230-1307
• Became Lawyer but Got Tired of That
• Wrote Book on Farming
• Cultivation of Cereals, Peas, Beans
• Cultivation of Grapes & Winemaking
• Cultivation of Fruit Trees, Veggies,
Medicinal Plants & Flowers
• Care of the Woods
 The Middle Ages: 12th to 16th
Centuries
• Publication of the agricultural book Opus
Ruralium Commodorum by Pietro di Crescenzi
of Italy was a notable development in this
period of restoration of political and economic
order and revival in classical learning of the
past.
• However, its contents were based
mainly on early Roman writings,
personal observations and teachings
from the Dominican monastery at
Bologna.
• As a consequence, soil fertility and soil
amendment practices remained much the
same as in the days of the Greeks and
Romans, relying principally upon animal
manures; composts; sewage and other waste
products; seas and, seaweed and fish in
coastal areas; bones; and liming materials,
usually marl.
4. JAN BAPTISTA VAN HELMONT
• The first true
experiments with
living plants appear to
have been conducted
by Jan Baptiste van
Helmont (1577-
1644),
• a Flemish physician
and chemist, who
studied the growth of
a willow plant.
• Willows are very
cross-fertile, and
numerous hybrids oc
cur, both naturally
and in cultivation.
• A well
known ornamental
Medicine
• The leaves and bark of
the willow tree have
been mentioned in
ancient texts
from Assyria, Sumer an
d Egypt as a remedy
for aches and fever,
the Ancient
Greek physician Hippoc
rates wrote about its
medicinal properties in
the fifth century BC
Agriculture:
– Willows produce a modest amount of nectar that
bees can make honey from, and are especially
valued as a source of early pollen for bees.
• Energy
– Willow is grown for biomass or biofuel, in energy
forestry systems
– Willow may also be grown to produce Charcoal.
• theAncient
Greek physician Hippocr
ates wrote about its
medicinal properties in
the fifth century BC
Environment:
• ecological wastewater treatment systems,
• hedges,
• land reclamation,
• landscaping,
• streambank stabilisation (bioengineering),
• slope stabilisation,
• soil erosion control,
• shelterbelt and windbreak,
• wildlife habitat. \
Early Understandings of Plant Growth
• The directness, simplicity and taking of
quantitative measurements in his experiment
played an important role in developing the
experimental approach of the future.
 Jan Baptista Van Helmont
• Van Helmont was a careful observer of nature;
it can be inferred that from his analysis of data
gathered in his experiments suggested he had
a concept of the conservation of mass.
• He performed an experiment to determine
where plants get their mass. He grew a willow
tree and measured the amount of soil, the
weight of the tree and the water he added..
 Jan Baptista Van Helmont
• After five years the plant had gained about
164 lbs (74 kg).
• Since the amount of soil was basically the
same as it had been when he started his
experiment,
• he deduced that the tree's weight gain had
come from water.
 Jan Baptista Van Helmont
• Since it had received nothing but water and
the soil weighed practically the same as at the
beginning, he argued that the increased
weight of wood, bark and roots had been
formed from water alone.
 Jan Baptista Van Helmont
• However, this "deduction" is incomplete, as a
large proportion of the mass of the tree
comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide,
which, in conjunction with water, is turned
into carbohydrates via photosynthesis
Summed-Up
• Planted 5-Pound Willow Shoot in Earthen
Pot that Contained 200 Pounds of Soil
• Added Rain or Distilled Water when Soil
Was Getting Dry
• Let Tree Grow 5 Years
• Weighed 169 Pounds & 3 Ounces
• Weighed the Soil Again
• He Concluded that Water Was the Source
of Plant Nutrition
References:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Baptist_van
_Helmont
5.FRENCH BREAKTHROUGHS

• Bernard Palissy (1510 –1590) in

France, conducted 1st Scientific
Study of Soil Amendments to
Replenish Minerals
• Olivier de Serres Promoted Crop
Rotation as Way to Preserve Soil
Nutrients
6. JETHRO TULL
• (30 March 1674 – 21
February 1741)
• He was an
English agricultural
pioneer who helped
bring about the British
Agricultural Revolution
Jethro Tull
• He perfected a horse-
drawn seed drill in 1701
that economically
sowed the seeds in neat
rows, and later a horse-
drawn hoe.
Jethro Tull
• Tull's methods were adopted by many large
landowners, and they helped form the basis of
modern agriculture.
• In his travels, he found himself seeking more
knowledge of agriculture.
• Influenced by the early Age of
Enlightenment, he is considered to be one of
the early proponents of a scientific (and
especially empirical) approach to agriculture.
• He helped transform agricultural
practices by inventing or improving
numerous implements. Jethro Tull
innovated with the seed drill, a
device for sowing seeds effectively, in
order to implement his ideas on how
to sow sainfoin.
Invention

• Such a device had been suggested by John

Worlidge, by 1699, but there is no
evidence that he had built a drill.
• Tull's machine was probably used by 1701.
Jethro Tull
• Thought that Plants Ingested Small Soil Particles
• Cultivating the Soil Made It Easier for Plants to
Take Up the Soil Particles.
• Tull also advocated the use of horses instead of
oxen and invented a horse-drawn hoe for clearing
weeds, and made changes to the design of the
plough which are still visible in modern versions.
•

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(agriculturist)
• His interest in ploughing derived from his
interest in weed control, and his belief that
fertilizer was unnecessary, on the basis that
nutrients locked up in soil could be released
through pulverization.
• Although he was incorrect in his belief that
plants obtained nourishment exclusively from
such nutrients, he was aware that horse
manure carried weed seeds, and hoped to
avoid using it as fertilizer by pulverizing the
soil to enhance the availability of plant
nutrients.
• Although he was incorrect in his belief
that plants obtained nourishment
exclusively from such nutrients,
• he was aware that horse manure carried
weed seeds, and hoped to avoid using it
as fertilizer by pulverizing the soil to
enhance the availability of plant
nutrients.
Reference:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(agri
culturist)
 7. JUSTUS VON LIEBIG (1803-1873)
• The German chemist
Justus von Liebig (1803-
1873) is considered by
many to be the
father of agricultural
chemistry and the
fertilizer industry.
•
• Among his many outstanding contributions are:
– (a) several important conclusions regarding
the source and role of plant nutrients, e.g.
carbon in plants being derived from
atmospheric carbon dioxide and the necessity
of phosphorus for seed formation, (b) the
concept of developing
fertilizer recommendations based on the
chemical analysis of plants and interpretation
of the analyses,
 (c) the principle that plant growth is
proportional to the amount of
mineral substances available in the
fertilizer and
(d) outlining the Law of the Minimum
which essentially states that if one
nutritive element is deficient, plant
growth will be limited even though
supplies of all other vital nutrient
elements are adequate.
Justus Von Liebig
• Laid Foundation for Modern Fertilizer Industry
• Stressed Value of Mineral Elements in Soil
• Figured Out the Source of Carbon in Plants
• Seeds Needed Phosphates
• Manufactured Fertilizer but Fused P & K with
Lime
• ‘Liebig’s Law of the Minimum’
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_von_Liebig
8. CHARLES DARWIN
• 1881
• Published Book ‘The Formation of Vegetable
Mould through the Actions of Worms, with
Observations on Their Habits’

• http://darwin-
online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_VegetableMouldandWorms.html
The Formation of Vegetable Mould
through the Action of Worms, with
Observations on their Habits

Charles Darwin
• A major re-evaluation of soil formation and the
role of biota commenced in the 1980s, as soil
geomorphologists began to re-evaluate Darwin‟s
(worms) and Nathaniel Shaler‟s(ants) early ideas
on the role of bioturbation in soil formation.
• There is now ample evidence to support Darwin's
conclusions, and in many areas biota that burrow
in soil are major agents of pedogenesis.
• Late 19th CenturyDisciplines of agricultural
chemistry (Disciplines of agricultural chemistry
(soil fertility), geography, and geology provided a
broad but somewhat fragmented idea of soil
science.
• Worms became available in October 1881
and sold thousands of copies in its first few
weeks, despite Darwin's comment to Carus
that it was "a small book of little moment".
Darwin received a "laughable" number of
letters containing questions, observations
and ideas, even "idiotic" ones. A week's
holiday with Emma in Cambridge was to
follow.
• Darwin died the next year on April 19, 1882 It
was his last scientific book, and was
published shortly before his death (see Darwin
from Insectivorous Plants to Worms).
•
• Exploring earthworm behavior and ecology, it
continued the theme common throughout his
work that gradual changes over long periods
of time can lead to large and sometimes
surprising consequences. It was the first
significant work on soil bioturbation, although
that term was not used by Darwin (it first
appeared in the soil and geomorphic literature
one hundred years later).
9. U.S. SOIL FERTILITY DEVELOPMENTS

• James E. Oglethorpe Asked American Indians

to Teach Agricultural Practices to Colonists
• –1st Ag Experiment Station
• Benjamin Franklin Had Extensive Interest in
Ag & Farming
• Edmund Ruffin Among 1st to Lime Soils
• Department of Agriculture
• Morrill Act
James E. Oglethorpe
Early History
• Agriculture has played a dominant
role in Georgia's economy for more
than two and a half centuries,
beginning with the settlement by
English colonists, led by
General James E. Oglethorpe,
in Savannah in 1733. One of the
major goals of the colonists was to
produce agricultural commodities
for export to England.
• The Indians were skilled in hunting, fishing,
and especially in the cultivation of maize
(corn), beans, pumpkins, melons, and fruits
of several kinds. The colonists learned
agricultural practices from the Native
Americans, and this collaboration was
profitable from the very beginning.
• they produced enough corn the first year to
export some 1,000 bushels to England. They
also began establishing enterprises that would
produce silk, indigo, and wine, which were
especially in demand in England.
• In 1735 Queen Caroline of England wore
a dress made of imported Georgia silk to
celebrate her fifty-second birthday.
• By 1742 Georgia silk had become an
important export commodity, and
• by 1767 almost a ton of silk was exported
to England each year.
• Rice and indigo also became profitable
crops during the early years of the
colony.
• Georgia's Ricefirst staple crop, was the
most important commercial agricultural
commodity in the Lowcountry from the
middle of the eighteenth century until
the early twentieth century.
•.
• Rice arrived in America with European and
African migrants as part of the so-called
Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, and
germs. Over time, profits from the production
and sale of the cereal formed the basis of
many great fortunes in coastal Georgia
• The Trustees of the colony established an
experimental garden of ten acres in
Savannah and employed a botanist to
collect seeds, drugs, and dyestuff from
other countries with a similar climate to
conduct research on how they could be
grown in Georgia.
• This was the first agricultural experiment
station in America, and many new crops,
including cotton, were introduced
Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin lived most
of his life in the
city, yet he had an
extensive interest
in agriculture and
farming.
Benjamin Franklin
• He introduced native American plants to
Europe and some European plants to
America, advocated a silk industry for the
British colonies, printed a number of books
on agriculture and botany, suggested
implementing crop insurance, and helped
educate people in the use of gypsum as a
fertilizer.
Benjamin Franklin
• In 1743, Franklin published his "Proposal for
promoting useful knowledge among the British
plantations in America," which suggested the
formation of the American Philosophical Society. One
of the society's proposed purposes was to share
information on developments in agriculture.
• Following Franklin's "retirement" from business in
1748, he purchased a 300-acre farm in New Jersey
where he planned to live and work the land. However,
public affairs got in the way of farming, and after a few
months, Franklin returned to Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin
• The groups discussed encouraging the
cultivation and production of safflower for
dye, of silk and hemp for textiles, and of olive
oil for cooking, and proposed offering farmers
a financial premium for growing such crops.
• While in London in the late 1750s and early
1760s, Franklin attended meetings and
became a member of societies and
committees that had an interest in agriculture.
Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin was also very interested in starting a silk
industry in America. A number of attempts to start a
silk industry in Europe and England had met with
mixed success.
• He studied the natural history of the silkworm and the
mulberry tree and believed the soil and climate of
America to be ideal for growing both. Franklin,
practical and enthusiastic, wrote Dr. Cadwallader Evans
of Philadelphia, extolling the many benefits of silk..
Throughout his life, Franklin helped promote the
sharing of agricultural knowledge and products
between countries.
Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin had a respect for farming and the
people who worked the land. He called
agriculture "the only honest way, wherein
man receives a real increase of the seed
thrown into the ground in the kind of
continual miracle, wrought by the hand of
God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent
life and his virtuous industry."
Edmund Ruffin
• He was a farmer
and agronomist. For a time,
he was editor of
the Farmers Register and
investigated at some length
the possibility of
using lime to raise pH
in peat soils to improve
agricultural productivity.
Edmund Ruffin
• During the pre-war years, he was interested in
the origin of bogs and published several
detailed descriptions of
the Dismal and Blackwater Swamps.
• Ruffin would later be better known for his
contributions to agriculture and not so much
for his claim to have fired the first shot of the
Civil War.
• Specifically, he aided the Southern economy
by proposing new and ingenious ways to
rotate and fertilize tobacco crops such that
fields could be used over and over to grow the
valuable crop. During his own lifetime, his
books and ideas in agronomy grew
increasingly ignored.
THE MORRILL ACT OF 1862
• The Morrill Act of 1862 was also known as
the Land Grant College Act.
• It was a major boost to higher education in
America.
• The grant was originally set up to establish
institutions is each state that would educate
people in agriculture, home economics,
mechanical arts, and other professions that
were practical at the time.
THE MORRILL ACT OF 1862
• The land-grant act was introduced by a congressman
from Vermont named Justin Smith Morrill. He
envisioned the financing of agricultural and
mechanical education. He wanted to assure that
education would be available to those in all social
classes.
• There were several of these grants, but the first
passed in 1862.
• This bill was signed by Abraham Lincoln on July 2.
• This gave each state 30,000 acres of public land for
each Senator and Representative.
• These numbers were based on the census of
1860. The land was then to be sold and the
money from the sale of the land was to be
put in an endowment fund which would
provide support for the colleges in each of
the states.
• The land-grant has improved the lives of
millions of Americans. This was not the case
in the early stages. At the time the grants
were established, there was a separation of
races.
• In the South, blacks were not allowed to
attend the original land-grant
institutions. There was a provision for
separate but equal facilities, but only
Mississippi and Kentucky set up any
such institution. This situation was
rectified when the Second Morrill Act
was passed and expanded the system of
grants to include black institutions.
• The Morrill Acts have become a major
educational resource for our nation. This
program is available to all people who are in
search of higher education. Over the years it
has proven to be an important part of our
educational system. This Act changed the
course of higher education. The purpose of
education shifted from the classical studies
and allowed for more applied studies that
would prepare the students for the world
that they would face once leaving the
classroom.
• This Act also gave education support
directly from the government.
• The Morrill Act changed the face of
education and made room for our
growing and ever changing country and
ensured that there would always be
money to finance educational facilities
and that there would be continual
government support of these institutions.
 10. EARLY SOIL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

• 1 of Earliest Land Evaluation Systems

Occurred in 2300 BC in China
• Incorporated Soil Classification
System
• Rulers May Have Based Property
Taxes on Size of Individual Land
Holding & Soil Productivity
• The earliest known soil classification
system in the world can be find in
an ancient Chinese book Yugong
(2,500 BC), where soils of China were
classified into three categories and
nine classes based on soil color,
texture and hydrologic features; the
classification was used for land
evaluation (Gong Zitong 1994).
• Ancient name for Egypt – Kemet means fertile
black alluvial soils, while Deshret means red
desert land. About 3,000 BC different arable
soils had different cost in Egypt: “nemhuna”
soils cost 3 times more than “sheta-teni” soils
(Krupenikov 1981).
• This tradition continued in newer times.
• http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Arti
clePrintable.jsp?id=h-2056#
• http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/morrill.h
tml