The Broadening and Maturing of Soil Science at NCSU, 1960-89
This period can be described as one of broadening, deepening and maturing of all components, of attacking new problems and opportunities including nontraditional ones. Significant growth in numbers of faculty, staff and graduate students occurred. The 60's, 70's and 80's have seen initiation of research, teaching and extension efforts in environmental quality, waste disposal, erosion control and evaluation of soil productivity, soil tillage research, the use of soil science information for urban-suburban areas and the soil science aspects of alternative and sustainable agricultural systems as well as significant expansion of research on mineral nutrition of plants and nutrient uptake in relation to photosythesis and other basic research in plant chemistry.
International activities have become more fully integrated into departmental programs working in programs which have complementary benefits for the domestic programs and for faculty professional development. New programs on improving productivity of tropical soils in selected countries (soils similar to those in North Carolina), and improving the capability of the faculty to do work with the less developed countries were started. Pedro Sanchez joined the department in 1968 to coordinate these efforts and to focus on research and teaching of tropical soils - bringing with him wide experience and enthusiastic leadership which continues to date.
A Soil Science extension group was established in 1975, split off from the Agronomy Extension group. J.V. Baird was named specialist-in-charge and served in that capacity until 1988. J.P. Zublena replaced J. V. Baird as Specialist-in-charge in 1988.
Administrative changes during this period were: J.W. Fitts resigned as head in 1964 to spend full time on the International Soil Testing Project and was replaced by R.J. McCracken. In 1970, McCracken was appointed Assistant Director of Research in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Assistant Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station) and J. V. Baird was named acting head. C.B. McCants was appointed as head in 1971 and he served in this capacity until 1981. When he became director of the management entity for the Soil Management Collaborative Research Support Program, a Title XII, AID funded program. R.H. Miller, from Ohio State University was named department head in 1982, serving until 1989.
Major programs in Soil Science in 1989 are: soil chemistry, soil physics, soil fertility, soil genesis and classification, soil microbiology, soil management, urban soil science, soil mineralogy, soil-plant relations, waste management, forest soils (joint with the College of Forest Resources), coastal management studies, soil analyses, and tropical soils.
Since 1970, the department has grown from 27 to 30 tenure track faculty plus 7 other full time faculty members, from 28 to 44 supporting staff members and from 29 to 54 graduate students. When NC State University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1987 the Soil Science Department ranked as the largest soil science department in the US.
In July of 1987, the department moved into its portion of the new Williams Hall addition, with its much-needed additional floor space. This addition has given considerable relief to the previous overcrowding in Williams Hall, allowing technicians and graduate students to come out of the closets, storerooms and "bullpens" for more efficient and effective working conditions.
Research in the 1960-89 Period
Research activities of this period reflect new directions and a broadening which were expressions of the philosophy and concerns of the Department Heads and senior faculty in meeting perceived new needs and changing conditions. New directions for this period include new initiatives in on-site and offsite waste disposal, the investigation of environmental impacts of agricultural practices on environmental quality including ground and surface water (B. Carlisle, A. Amoozegar, D.K. Cassel, J.W. Gilliam and S.W. Buol were active in this area in this period), coastal stabilization and wetland marsh establishment studies (S.W. Broome and E. Seneca, Botany), evaluation and development of alternative agricultural systems (L.D. King), studies of soil productivity with respect to new concepts and concerns about soil erosion and its control (J.W. Gilliam, R.B. Daniels, D.K. Cassel), determination of factors important in soil productivity (R.B. Daniels, S.W. Buol), recognition of the growing importance of forestry and forest soil ecology in the state (A.G. Wollum and C.B. Davey), basic research on mineral nutrition, nitrogen use efficiency and uptake by crop plants (W.A. Jackson and R.J. Volk) and establishment of a tropical soils program and its integration with other departmental programs (P.A. Sanchez, J. Nicholaides and T.J. Smyth). Titles of research projects established in the last 10 years are indicators of the broadened scope of the departmental research programs: Use of industrial and municipal wastes for soil improvement and crop production, potential of paper mill wastes for soil improvement and crop production, optimization of on-site wastewater disposal systems depending on ground absorption, environmental determinants of crop growth and soil productivity, nitrate and photorespiratory metabolism in C3 and C4 plants at subambient atmospheric oxygen levels, fragile environment utilization in tropical rainforests and evaluation of alternative farming systems. (22)
In this period, many of the research advances of the previous period have been consolidated, expanded and extended with useful results. An important development with high impact has been the application of the research findings on exchangeable aluminum as the main source of acidity in mineral soil systems. The application is the development of techniques for alleviation of this source of soil acidity, including methods for predicting the amount of lime to apply to overcome the main problem and for eliminating the side effects and including deficiencies of calcium and micronutrient deficiency and toxicity problems. This knowledge and technology has been applied in North Carolina, in other states with similar problems and also in the humid tropics where exchangeable aluminum has been a major barrier to increased food production. E.J. Kamprath has been the main project leader in aluminum research and Pedro Sanchez has played a key role in introducing these new concepts into tropical regions.
Early in the 1960's a forest soils research and teaching program was established in the department, jointly with the Department of Forestry in the then School, now College of Forest Resources. C.B. Davey joined the Department in 1962 with a joint appointment to lead this program which has been successful in providing the research support for forest fertilization programs as well as in helping define the quality of sites for tree plantings. When Dr. Davey was appointed Head of the Department of Forestry in 1970, A.G. Wollum was appointed as a new faculty member with responsibilities in forest soils and soil microbiology.
In this period, S.W. Buol has led a very active program in research in needed modifications and adjustments in the relatively new (1975) Soil Taxonomy promulgated by the US Cooperative Soil Survey. Buol has led International Committees for redefining the Oxisol soil order and for recognition of a previously unrecognized morphologic feature, the kandic horizon, a subsoil zone of high weathering and very low cation exchange capacity important in the Southeast and in other warm humid and tropical regions of the world. His studies are leading to major improvements in the international soil classification system, as well as bringing about significant changes in soil mapping and classification in the USA. S.W. Buol and P.A. Sanchez have developed a new practical soil classification and interpretation system which is coming into use in many parts of the world as well as the US called the Fertility Capability Classification (FCC). The FCC predicts the capability of a soil to respond to fertilization and management practices for food and fiber production. The research program of the department has been enhanced by access to the phytotron facility adjoining Gardner Hall and operated by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in cooperation and coordination with Duke University. This facility enables the study of plants under varying environmental and soil fertility regimes. One member of the Soil Science Department, C.D. Raper, Jr. makes extensive use of the facility in his work on plant-microenvironmental interactions. The facility was financed by federal grants and strong support from the tobacco industry.
An important research support facility, the Analytical Service Laboratory was further developed, automated and equipped with new instrumentation in this period. Leadership was provided by J.W. Gilliam, Maurice Watson (now at Ohio State University), and W.P. Robarge. This laboratory continues to provide a wide range of chemical analyses of plant materials for researchers in Soil Science and other departments of the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Forest Resources.
Teaching in the 1960-89 Period
Two significant curriculum additions were made during this period:
A Conservation Curriculum was added at the 4-year undergraduate level in 1970, in cooperation with the Department of Forestry. This curriculum was a response to student need for more training and background knowledge of our natural resources for improved conservation and management.
Secondly, a Soil Management Curriculum, including a set of three new courses, was added to the Agricultural Institute (two year) program in 1968. The courses added were Principles of Soil Science, Fertilizers and Soil Fertility, and Soil Management and Conservation. Although the curriculum is no longer offered, the Department continues to teach all but Soil Management and Conservation.
Several new courses have been added at undergraduate and graduate levels to help students meet current problems and opportunities:
-Undergraduate level (4-year program): Water Management, Soil Resources and Land Use and Alternative Agricultural Systems.
-Undergraduate and Graduate Level: Soil-Crop Management Systems.
-Graduate level: Soil and Plant Analysis, Advanced Forest Soils, and Tropical Soils: Characteristics and Management.
The past three decades have seen further growth and development of a very strong and active undergraduate Agronomy Club, cosponsored with the Crop Science Department. However, the most outstanding indication of accomplishments in the teaching program has been the success of soil science graduates. For example, seven soil science graduate students have been named to positions as Department Heads, Directors of Experiment Stations and Deans.
Leadership in the academic affairs program has changed during this period. In 1961, H.C. Folks was appointed Assistant Director of Resident Instruction in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences and S.E. Younts was appointed to replace him. Dr. Younts resigned in 1964 to join the Potash Institute in Atlanta (he later became Vice-President of the University of Georgia). M.G. Cook was appointed teaching coordinator in 1965 and served until 1985 when he asked to be reassigned to the extension faculty in Soil Science. Joe Kleiss is the current teaching coordinator.
Extension in the 1960-89 Period
The number of extension personnel in Soil Science has increased five-fold since the early 1960's - from one to approximately five full time equivalents. Increased staffing and program activities include land use planning using soil interpretations, on-site waste disposal, soil tillage and management, soil fertility and management in the Blacklands (organic soils of northeastern North Carolina) and vegetable, fruit crop, and ornamental production in the mountains. The extension program is operated in close coordination with the commodity specialists in the Crop Science and Horticultural Science Departments and with the Soil Testing Division of the NC Department of Agriculture.
International Programs in the 1960-89 Period
As previously indicated, the International Soil Testing Project closed in 1975 after successfully introducing soil testing and fertilizer advisory programs in a number of Latin American countries.
In 1972, the Soil Science Department received funding from AID for research on tropical soils primarily in Peru and Brazil. This program has focused mainly on characterizing and understanding soil acidity in tropical soils and techniques for correcting it, overcoming phosphorus deficiencies in the red soils of the tropical savannas, and soil fertility-soil management programs for sustainable agriculture on soils cleared from humid tropical forests. The objective was to obtain basic information to serve as a foundation for technical assistance, technology transfer and training programs in less developed countries most in need of increasing their productive capacity and conserving their natural resources. The tropical soils research program is still active and continues to evolve to a more resource conservation emphasis. The strong similarity of soils in the humid tropical regions to those in North Carolina has been of great importance for maintaining the strength and focus of the tropical soils program within the department.
The Soil Science Department was a member of the 4-University Consortium on Soils of the Tropics awarded a grant for development of faculty knowledge and capabilities for participating in technical assistance, technology transfer and training programs in tropical soils of less developed countries. This program came to be known as the 211 (d) program, in reference to the section of the Foreign Assistance Act which authorizes and encourages such activities. This program enabled department-wide familiarization with tropical soils and with principles and techniques for low cost, low input sustainable agriculture, plus a better understanding of the nature, properties and productivity of the soil resources of the world, especially in the tropics. This grant terminated in November, 1975.
The renewal of the University-wide Research, Extension and Education program in Peru in 1982 has meant additional International involvement for the Soil Science Department. In 1987, three members of the Soil Science Department were in the REE program - as Chief of Party, Research Advisor and Extension Advisor.
In 1981, the Soil Science Department of NCSU with three other US universities, was asked by the Agency for International Development (AID) to develop a tropical soils research program under Title XII called the Soil Management Collaborative Research Support Program or Soil Management CRSP. This program was designed to research methods for increasing productivity and production of tropical soils in a number of Latin American, African and Far East less developed countries in differing agro-ecological zones. The other three universities are Cornell University, University of Hawaii and Texas A & M University. The program is known by the acronym TROPSOIL for Tropical Soils Program). The Soil Science Department has conducted field studies in cooperation with the host country agricultural research organizations in the humid tropical jungle area of the Upper Amazon Basin in Peru near Yurimaguas and Manaus, Brazil, and in the humid rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. Land clearing, soil fertility and liming needs and soil and management practices for efficient, low cost sustainable agricultural production were the objectives of the initial research. Pedro Sanchez and John Nicholaides were the on-campus coordinators of the program for the Soil Science Department until Dr. Nicholaides left in 1985 to head the International programs in agriculture at the University of Illinois. Dr. Sanchez continues as coordinator and Dr. T. J. Smyth, faculty project leader at Manaus, Brazil (1982-87) was returned to campus to replace Dr. Nicholaides.
Long standing involvement in international programs by the department has resulted in better research, teaching and extension programs in soil science at NCSU. Many of the soils in the less developed countries in whicn Soil Science Department people have worked are similar to those in North Carolina, except for being a little more acid, infertile and weathered, in some instances. Working with soils which are a little more extreme in these respects has helped in understanding NC soils and how they can be improved. Many pieces of information and technologies developed or learned in the International programs have been adapted to NC conditions for the benefit of NC agriculture. Particularly important are techniques in low cost, low input sustainable agriculture and alternative agricultural practices.
This page last modified 1/15/03.