CYRIL GEORGE HOPKINS 



It was the desire to prosecute further studies with starch 

 that took him to Germany a year later; and while there, he 

 was appointed Professor of Soil 'Fertility and Head of the 

 newly organized Department of Agronomy of the University 

 of Illinois in 1900, a position tendered and accepted by cable, 

 and one which he held until his death. In 1903 he was ap- 

 pointed Vice-Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. 



It was characteristic of the man that he said long after- 

 ward, "I accepted the position to head the agronomy interests, 

 not because I coveted prominence and responsibility or because 

 I felt myself qualified, but because such men as President 

 Draper, Doctor Burrill, Professor Forbes, and the Dean of 

 the College considered that I was the best available man ; and 

 whenever four equally good men feel that another is better 

 qualified, then I am ready to surrender the position at any 

 time." And in this statement he was perfectly sincere. 



He threw himself at once and unreservedly into the prob- 

 lems of the department. In attempting to discover its field 

 of service to the Commonwealth he organized a soil survey 

 of the state, the most comprehensive ever undertaken, and he 

 studied the problem of production from the standpoint of 

 maintaining unimpaired the power of the soil to produce crops. 

 His textbook, "Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture," 

 embodies the results of his studies both scientific and philo- 

 sophical, and has long been recognized as a classic. 



Doctor Hopkins lost no opportunity to preach the doctrine 

 of soil conservation and this disposition to serve, combined 

 with a desire to broaden his experience, led him in 1913 to 

 accept for one year the position as Director of the Southern 

 Settlement and Development Organization with headquarters 

 at Baltimore. 



It is needless to observe that it was as Professor of Soil 

 Fertility that Doctor Hopkins performed his great service to 

 mankind. This is not the place to speak of that service fur- 

 ther than to say that he literally put his life into the problem 



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