Profiles in the History of U.S. Soil Survey (Hardcover)

by Douglas Helms (Editor), Anne B. W. Effland (Editor), Patricia J. Durana (Editor) "Creation of the Division of Agricultural Soils in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1894 marked the beginning of a national commitment to..." (more)
Key Phrases: state soil scientist, soil survey interpretations, soil survey work, Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Carolina (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Offers a broad-ranging collection of essays chronicling the development of the U.S. Soil Survey and its influence on the history of soil survey as a scientific discipline that focuses on mapping analysis, and description of soils.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Iowa State Press; 1 edition (February 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813827590
• ISBN-13: 978-0813827599
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #541,209 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #82 in

  Books > Science > Agricultural Sciences > Agronomy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A History of Some Soil Science Bureaucrats We Can't Live Without, February 12, 2008

By	James Safranek "Holocene Meltwater" (Steinbeck Country) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

And so goes the American food supply.
You've probably seen those bumper stickers "Fed Your Kid Today? Hug A Farmer", but no one would probably let their kid hug a suspicious looking guy covered in dirt, alone in a field, busy probing and measuring soil quality. Critical field work that allows those huggable corporate 'growers' to keep their rice yields up for those Cocoa Krispies hyping up your child in the morning.

This book pays homage to those in-the-scene workers who've mapped and maintain the National soil data base we depend on for food, forests and fun (recreation, for example, on BLM lands, however improperly managed by current conservative crats).

As someone who likes to explore the history of the discipline he's reading, I honed in on chapter 9 "Soil Survey and Soil-Geomorphology" authored by some of our best soil geomorphologists.

Note that one of the authors of this chapter, Holliday, covers just about the same ground in FOOTPRINTS IN THE SOIL (see section 2, "Soil as A Natural Body"), which is also highly recommended for an international perspective.

It was about time (plus parent material, climate, relief, and organisms) that someone wrote a history of the Survey. Soil scientists, agronomists, geographers, geologists and historians will benefit from the long view of those who've faithfully studied one of our most important resources.