The Soils Program Starts to Blossom 1935-40
Several factors were responsible for a burst of growth and increased breadth of coverage starting in 1935. With the passing of the worst of the depression years, several new Federal programs began and ongoing ones were expanded which provided additional support for soils work. Also, in 1939, the first direct state appropriation for support of agricultural research became a reality. C. B. Williams took advantage of these opportunities to recruit the best people he could find for additional faculty positions, though lacking full support funds for all of them.16/ Several faculty members were added and new programs were started in this period. The faculty of this period was composed of outstanding people who dedicated their entire careers to furthering the soils program in the interests of North Carolina agriculture. Included were J. F. Lutz appointed in 1931 for soil teaching, soil physics and soil conservation; W. H. Rankin in 1931 in soil fertility and soil management for small grains; W. W. Woodhouse in 1936 in soil fertility and management of pastures and forages (initially supported by funds from the Tennessee Valley Authority); Emerson Collins in 1936 in the area of soil fertility research initially for peanuts and cotton, later switching to extension work in soil fertility and Agronomy Extension Specialist-in-Charge; and R. L. Lovvorn in 1936, initially for research in soil fertility and management of peanuts and forages although he shifted to pasture management and weed science later.
Research 1935-40
Though the program had begun to grow after the depression years, there was still very little money for support of research projects in this period. As indicated earlier, C. B. Williams' policy was to recruit the best people he could and to see what they could do with the small amount of funds available.16/
Expansion of research activity in this period included new research on soil fertility and fertilization of pastures and forages, cotton, peanuts and soybeans. New research activity also began in the areas of soil physics and conservation.
Soil Survey 1935-40
A major development in the soil survey program in this period was the introduction of airphotos as a base for the field mapping. As indicated by W.D. Lee.8/ "No other factor had a greater impact on any map work than the aerial photo." North Carolina was one of the states to pioneer in this technology because of William B. Cobb's experience with this technique in the Air Corps in World War 1. No longer did the soil surveyors need to make their own base maps as they proceeded with their work; interpretations of soil patterns could be made from the "air pictures". as they were called.
Other developments for the NC soil survey took place in this period - the start of TVA funding of soil mapping on a cooperative basis (TVA, NCAES, and USDA) in the fifteen westernmost counties of North Carolina and the initiation of soil surveys by the newly. founded USDA Soil Conservation Service for purposes of soil conservation Planning. These developments accelerated the soil survey program and also resulted in much less involvement of the NCAES soils program in operational field soil surveys.
Teaching 1935-40
Following the untimely death of W.B. Cobb in 1934, C.B. Clevenger was appointed to the soils teaching program and also served as Head of the Division of Soils in the Department of Agronomy. He and J.F. Lutz carried the main burden of the soils teaching program until the departure of Mr. Clevenger in 1942.
A listing of soils courses offered by the end of this period (1942) illustrates the progress that had been made in a few years, both in number and breadth of soils courses offered and in number and training of the faculty involved:18/
Undergraduate:
General Soils - Baver and Clevenger
Soil Fertility - Lutz
Fertilizers - Collins
Soil Management - Lutz
Soils of NC - Lutz
Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate:
Soil Development - Lutz
Soil Fertility Evaluation Methods - Piland
Advanced Soil Fertility - Baver and Lutz
Special Problems - Staff
Graduate Courses:
Advanced Fertilizers - Collins
Physics and Colloidal Chemistry of Soils - Baver and Lutz
Soil Physics - Baver and Lutz
Seminar - Staff
Soil Research - Staff
Extension 1935-40
During these pre-World War II years, the extension programs were almost exclusively focused on the county agent level with only a few state level crop commodity specialists. These specialists were directly responsible to the Director of Extension, rather than to the subject matter Departments as is now the case.17/
This page last modified 1/15/03.