Eugene Woldemar Hilgard

Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (born January 5, 1833 in Zweibrücken , Pfalz , † January 8, 1916 in Berkeley , California ) was an American soil scientist , geologist and agricultural scientist of German origin. From 1875 he taught as a professor of agricultural chemistry at the University of Berkeley (California) and has had a lasting impact on the development of international soil science for several decades.

Live and act

Eugene Woldemar Hilgard came to the United States as a child with his father, the lawyer Theodor Hilgard , and nine siblings, including Julius Hilgard , and spent his youth on his parents' farm in Belleville , Illinois . In 1849 he returned to Germany and studied natural sciences with a focus on chemistry at the University of Heidelberg . In 1854 he was awarded a doctorate there with a dissertation on the gases from a candle flame. phil. PhD. From 1855 he worked as a geologist and agricultural chemist in the Mississippi Delta, mapped agricultural areas there and examined their suitability for the cultivation of cotton . The American Civil War (1861-1865), in which he took part, interrupted his scientific work.

From 1866 to 1872 Hilgard taught chemistry, later also geology and botany at the University of Mississippi . This was followed by a two-year position as a professor of geology and natural history at the University of Michigan . As early as 1872, Hilgard was one of those people in the USA who warned of the ecological, social and economic consequences of severe soil erosion. In a speech to the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical Fair Association, Hilgard warned that converting the Great Plains to farmland would only promise short-term prosperity and that ill-considered land use could have disastrous consequences for the United States as it did for the Roman Empire:

“In a rural community, the basic prerequisite for lasting prosperity [...] is maintaining the fertility of the soil. [...] The consequence of soil depletion is quite simply depopulation - the population tries by emigration or armed conflict to find the livelihood that the barren soil of their homeland denies them. [...] Armed with new, better plows, it only takes a short time to "tire" the soil that has just begun to be cultivated. [...] If we do not deal more sensibly with this natural heritage, the Chickasaw and Choctaw will rightly ask why another race has robbed them of their wonderful park-like hunting grounds on the grounds that they did not use their land in the way that the Creator intended. [...] With the way they were cultivated, the land would have existed forever. The way we are working on it now, it will take less than a century to bring it down to the Campagna Romana state . "

The 1930s confirmed Hilgard's prediction. After large parts of the Great Plains were converted to farmland, a prolonged drought resulted in severe dust storms. Millions of people left the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl period . The number of farmers who were forced to emigrate because cultivation was no longer possible on their land after these dust storms is estimated at around 750,000.

From 1875 until his death in 1816 he was Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the prestigious University of Berkeley (California).

Hilgard founded an Agricultural Experiment Station in Berkeley and soon became the driving force behind the establishment of research facilities oriented towards agricultural practice in all American states. The focus of his own scientific work was studies on the genesis, classification, use and improvement of alkaline soils . He published his research results well into old age in German language journals. For decades he maintained close professional contacts with German agricultural scientists, including the agricultural physicist Ewald Wollny, who worked in Munich .

Hilgard has summarized the knowledge of scientific soil science in a fundamental teaching and manual . It appeared under the title " Soils. Their Formation, Properties, Composition, and Relations to Climate and Plant Growth in the Humid and Arid Regions ". The first edition of 1906 was followed by several reprint editions until 1912 and a final reprint in 1930 posthumously. For decades, this work was considered to be an international standard work in scientific soil science and the specialist colleagues placed Hilgard among the most important soil scientists of his time. Hilgard received honorary degrees from the universities of Mississippi , Columbia , Michigan, and Berkeley . In 1872 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences , in 1904 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Publications (selection)

Contribution to the knowledge of the flame of light . Diss. Phil. Heidelberg 1854.
Report on the Geology and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi . E. Barksdale, State Printer, Jackson 1860.
On the influence of lime as a constituent of the soil on the mode of development of plants . In: Research in the field of agricultural physics, Vol. 10, 1888, pp. 185-195.
A Report on the Relations of Soil to Climate . US Department of Agriculture. Weather Bureau. Bulletin No. 3. Washington 1892.
The sugar beet culture on alkaline soils . In: The agricultural experimental stations, vol. 45, 1895, pp. 423–432.
Soils. Their Formation, Properties, Composition, and Relations to Climate and Plant Growth in Humid and Arid Regions . The Macmillan Company New York 1906; Reprint editions: 1907, 1910, 1912 and 1930.

literature

JC Poggendorff: Biographical-literary hand dictionary of the exact natural sciences Vol. 3, 1898, p. 630 u. Vol. 4, 1904, pp. 638-639 (script index).
In memoriam. Eugene W. Hilgard ... . University of California Press, Berkeley 1916 (with picture and font index.).
B. Lipmann: EW Hilgard . In: Internationale Mitteilungen für Bodenenkunde, Vol. 11, 1921, pp. 161–165 (with picture).
David R. Montgomery : Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations . Second edition. University of California Press, Berkeley (CA) 2012, ISBN 978-0-520-27290-3 .
Hans Jenny: EW Hilgard and the Birth of Modern Soil Science . Collana della Rivista "Agrochimia", Pisa 1961 (with picture and scripts)
Hans-Peter Blume: Eugen Woldemar Hilgard, German-American soil scientist . In: H.-P. Blume: 1926-2001. 75 years of the German Soil Science Society = communications from the German Soil Science Society Vol. 97, 2001, p. 290 and others (with picture).

Remarks

↑ This does not mean the mouth region of the Mississippi south of Baton Rouge , Louisiana , but a region on the Mississippi in the state of the same name, see → Lower Mississippi Delta Region and → Yazoo River

Web links

Wikisource: Eugene Woldemar Hilgard - Sources and full texts

Single receipts

↑ quoted from David R. Montgomery : Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations. 2012 (see literature ), p. 189. The original quote is: In an agricultural commonwealth, the fundamental requirement of continued prosperity is [...] that the fertility of the soil must be maintained [...] The result of the exhaustion of the soil is simply depopulation; the inhabitants seeking in emigration, or in conquest, the means of subsistence and comfort denied them by a sterile soil at home. [...] Armed with better implements of tillage it takes but a short time to “tire” the soil first taken in cultivation. [...] If we do not use the heritage more rationale, well might the Chickasaws and the Choctaws question the moral right of the act by which their beautiful parklike hunting grunds were turned over to another race, on the plea that they did not put them to the uses for which the Creator intended them. [...] Under their system these lands would have lastet forever; under ours, as heretofore practiced, in less than a century more the State would be reduced to the condition of the Roman Campagna. Original source: Eugene W. Hilgard: Address on progressive agriculture, and industrial education, delivered before the Mississippi agricultural and mechanical fair association, at Jackson, November 14th, 1872. Jackson (MS) 1873 (full text on HathiTrust ).
^ David R. Montgomery: Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations. 2012 (see literature ), p. 152

personal data
SURNAME	Hilgard, Eugene Woldemar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hilgard, Eugene W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German soil scientist, geologist and agricultural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 5, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zweibrücken , Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH	January 8, 1916
Place of death	Berkeley , California

[1] This does not mean the mouth region of the Mississippi south of Baton Rouge , Louisiana , but a region on the Mississippi in the state of the same name, see → Lower Mississippi Delta Region and → Yazoo River

[2] quoted from David R. Montgomery : Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations. 2012 (see literature ), p. 189. The original quote is: In an agricultural commonwealth, the fundamental requirement of continued prosperity is [...] that the fertility of the soil must be maintained [...] The result of the exhaustion of the soil is simply depopulation; the inhabitants seeking in emigration, or in conquest, the means of subsistence and comfort denied them by a sterile soil at home. [...] Armed with better implements of tillage it takes but a short time to “tire” the soil first taken in cultivation. [...] If we do not use the heritage more rationale, well might the Chickasaws and the Choctaws question the moral right of the act by which their beautiful parklike hunting grunds were turned over to another race, on the plea that they did not put them to the uses for which the Creator intended them. [...] Under their system these lands would have lastet forever; under ours, as heretofore practiced, in less than a century more the State would be reduced to the condition of the Roman Campagna. Original source: Eugene W. Hilgard: Address on progressive agriculture, and industrial education, delivered before the Mississippi agricultural and mechanical fair association, at Jackson, November 14th, 1872. Jackson (MS) 1873 (full text on HathiTrust ).

[3] David R. Montgomery: Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations. 2012 (see literature ), p. 152