2 EXPERTMENt STATION KECORD. 



judged from the list of his investigations and their applications, but 

 the influence of such a man on an embryo science and on the develop- 

 ment of investigation is not easily measured. 



Dr. Ililgard's versatility is one of the striking characteristics of his 

 career. He has won distinction in two quite separate branches of 

 science — chemistry and geology; and in agriculture he has covered 

 an unusually wide field. His breadth of view, his liberal training, 

 and his varied experience have fitted him to successfully head the 

 Avork of an agricultural survey, to conduct a survey of the geological 

 resources of a State, and to direct a census report on cotton produc- 

 tion, besides conducting a series of soil investigations which has 

 ranked him among the foremost authorities on that subject. 



Starting as chemist of the recently established Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution in Washington in 1855, he soon went to Mississippi to take up 

 work in geology, and from 1858 to 1872 was in charge of the geolog- 

 ical survey in that State. His early years of study were devoted espe- 

 cially to geology, and his publications were mainly along that line. 

 In 18G0 he issued a nearly four hundred page report on The Geology 

 and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi, which was followed by 

 a series of special articles on geological subjects pertaining especially 

 to ]VIississippi and Louisiana. His geological papers continued to 

 ajipear down to about 188G. Several were printed in the U. S. 

 Geological Survey reports on the Mineral Resources of the United 

 States; and during that period he conducted investigations for the 

 Mississippi River Commission, which were published in 1883. 



In 1870 Dr. Hilgard began writing upon the maintenance of fer- 

 tility in soils, and a few years later articles from his pen appeared on 

 soil analyses and their utility, the interpretation of soil analysis, silt 

 analyses of soils, and similar subjects, which were the beginning of 

 his investigation in that field. He went to California in 1875 from 

 the University of Michigan, where he had for two j^ears occupied 

 the chair of geology and natural history. His survey of the soils of 

 the State began with his taking up work in California, and consti- 

 tuted the first comprehensive soil survey in this country. He was 

 an earnest advocate of the direct chemical and physical investigation 

 of soils, and their rehitions to native vegetation, for both theoretical 

 and practical purposes. His study of both arid and humid soils 

 gave a wider basis for a soil science, and corrected many erroneous 

 conclusions drawn from experience in western Europe and humid 

 regions. 



His reputation rests especially on his stud}^ of the soils of regions 

 deficient in rainfall. His investigations in that line have been extensive 

 and long continued. They have brought out the contrast between the 

 average composition of these arid soils and those of humid regions, 

 and developed the important fact of the lower content of humus in 



