History and Development of the Soils Department in the Faculty of Agriculture at M

History and Development of the Soils Department

in the Faculty of Agriculture at M.A.C.

and the University of Manitoba

1906-1955

Prepared by

J.H. Ellis,

on retirement as Professor of Soils, August 31, 1955.

Table of Contents

Page

1. Introduction 1

2. History of the introduction and development of the

study ofsoils2

a) “Soils” as subject matter under Department of Physics2

b) “Soils” as subject matter within the Department of Chemistry5

c) “Soils” as subject matter under Department of Field Husbandry8

3. THE DEPARTMENT OF SOILS11

a) The recognition of “Soils” as a scientific discipline11

b) Activities and Functions of the Soils Department12

(i) Research12

(ii) Teaching13

(iii) Service13

(iv) Extension13

4. DEVELOPMENT OFSOILS DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES14

a) Soil Survey and Soil Mapping14

(i) Areas mapped by Systematic Reconnaissance Soil Survey17

(ii) Areas mapped as Special Surveys in connection with Land

Settlement, Provincial Reclamation Projects, etc.17

(iii) Areas mapped by Detailed Soil Survey18

(iv) Areas covered by Preliminary and Exploratory Surveys18

b) Soil Investigations and Research Projects18

c) Fertilizer and Soil Fertility Projects19

(i) Fertility Field Experiments at University Farm19

(ii) Co-operative Fertilizer Experiments at Rural Points19

d) Services23

c) Extension24

(i) Soil and Water Conservation Projects24

(ii) Farm Forestry and Tree Culture25

(iii) A Soil Extension Program for Manitoba25

5. PERSONNEL26

a) Experimental Plot Supervisors26

b) Soil Survey and Soil Investigations26

c) Office Administration27

d) Teaching Staff (M.A.C. and University)27

6. PUBLICATIONS28

a) Books, Booklets, Pamphlets, Bulletins, Papers28

b) Publications and Papers prior to and including 193736

Faculty of Agriculture at M.A.C. and the University of Manitoba

1. introduction

When the ManitobaAgriculturalCollege was opened, in 1906-07, the study of “soils” as a scientific discipline was unknown. The concepts of the original members of the teaching staff, in respect of the subject matter that should be taught at an AgriculturalCollege, were derived largely from their former experiences and associations with the OntarioAgriculturalCollege. Soils were treated only as a vaguely known medium in which crops grow; and the land on the M.A.C. Farm, in those early days at Tuxedo, was utilized merely as a place to grow feed for the livestock kept as specimens of breeds, (for stock judging classes or show purposes), and in a lesser degree to supply produce for the students’ laboratories or use in the kitchen of the students’ residence.

The subject matter and the aspects of agriculture initially emphasized are indicated by the following list of departments and staff as published in the M.A.C. Gazette Vol. 1 No. 1 March 1908. p 26.

Three professors, i.e.;

W.J. BlackPrincipal and Professor of Field Husbandry

W.J. RutherfordProfessor of Animal Husbandry

W.J. CarsonProfessor of Dairying

Six lecturers, i.e.;

F.W. BroderickLecturer in Horticulture, Forestry and Entomology

J.A. Hand Lecturer in Field Husbandry

G.G. WhiteLecturer in Chemistry and Physics

G.A. SprouleLecturer in English and Mathematics

A.R. GreigLecturer in Mathematics and Engineering

F. TorenceLecturer in Veterinary Science

It is obvious therefore that in the initial classes at the M.A.C. crops, livestock, and livestock products were featured; and except for some reference to plant nutrition in the

Chemistry lectures, and to some phases of soil management in the Field Husbandry lectures, the study of soils as a natural object, or of soil science as a scientific discipline, were not included as essentials in the curriculum.

In the ensuing years, and with the growth of the Institution, there was the inevitable enlargement of subject matter taught in all departments; new staff were added; the outlook of the staff broadened; new departments were formed; and new concepts of the function of the Institution were developed.

2. HISTORY OF THE INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY OF SOIL

The history of the introduction and development of the study of soils in the Faculty of Agriculture is of interest, not only from the standpoint of the history of the Faculty as a whole, but also because of the impact made on the University and the Province at large by the Soils Department that ultimately came into being.

The earliest attempts to introduce and develop the study of soils at the M.A.C. were more or less sporadic and abortive, diverse in origin, and circumscribed by division of interest.

(a) “Soils” as Subject Matter Under the Department of Physics

After the first two years on the Tuxedo site with classes taught by the staff noted above, F.G. Churchill (B.S.A.,Iowa) was appointed as lecturer in Soil Physics and Mathematics in the fall of 1908. Following the appointment of “Bud” Churchill as lecturer, and later as Professor of Soil Physics, a limited of what would now be called “Soils” subject matter was taught in “two small rooms of the OldAdministrationBuilding”.

The sessions at that time consisted of a “fall term” from late October to the Christmas holidays, and a “spring term” from January to the end of March. The “soil

physics” courses taught to the Diploma students consisted, in the first year, of two lectures per week on the origin, formation and agricultural classification of soils, and two lectures on soil management per week, in the second year, with one period of laboratory exercises dealing with the water retaining capacity, the capillary movement of soil moisture, the effect of mulches, etc.

At that time, all students in first and second year were in the Diploma classes, but after completion of the Diploma course, three additional years of study could be undertaken and a student could qualify for a Degree in Agriculture.

During these three years of degree work, the Soil Physics Department gave certain courses in physics (heat, magnetism, and electricity) and the following courses in “soils” and in allied subject matter:

Third Year . . . . Geology – ½ course; Meteorology – ½ course

Fourth Year . . . . Climatology – ½ course; Drainage – ½ course

FifthYear ...... Advanced Soil Physics and Soil Seminar

This regime continued on the Tuxedo site from 1908 to the spring of 1913, when, because it had outgrown the initial site, the M.A.C. was moved to a new location in FortGarry. Here with new buildings and equipment, and with a much larger acreage of land, a number of changes were made.

When the first classes entered the new building at Fort Garry, in the fall of 1913, S.C. Lee was appointed Professor of a newly formed Department of “Applied Physics” with offices and laboratory on the second floor of the Chemistry and Physics Building, and the Soil Physics Department under Professor Churchill, now relieved of the classes in physics and mathematics, was established in the first floor and basement rooms of the same building.

It is of interest to record that at this time the laboratory classes in physical properties and mechanical analysis of soils, on the new site, were provided with “soil” and “subsoil” samples obtained from various parts of the Province during the tour of the

“Better Farming Special” train in the summers of 1912 and 1913. This apparently was the first attempt to collect materials for the study of Manitoba soils.

A further point of interest undertaken in 1913-14-15 by Professor F.G. Churchill

(with R. O. Hughes as student assistant) was the work in tile draining certain areas adjacent to the buildings on the Fort Garry site. Much of this land was being cleared and plowed on the new site was flat and imperfectly drained. Some 17,000 feet of tile were installed in 1913, and an additional 6,000 feet of tile were laid in 1914. These were supplemented by other installations in 1915. During these years, the Soil Physics Department offered technical assistance in surveying and draining farm lands on request, but farm operators apparently did not respond as expected. Some fertilizer and liming trials also were initiated on one of the farm fields by Professor Churchill but there are no records of the results.

This attempt to develop a Soil Physics Department came to an abrupt end with the resignation of Professor F.G Churchill, who returned to Iowa to engage in soils extension work. Immediately this occurred, the Department of Applied Physics took over the space occupied by the Soil Physics Department; and in addition to continuing the teaching of physics and mathematics, and keeping the meteorological records, the Department of Applied Physics took over the physical equipment in the Soils Laboratory. However, the surveying and drainage instruments and field equipment of the Soil Physics Department were taken over by Professor L.J. Smith of the Agricultural Engineering Department and the course in “Surveying and Drainage” was taught subsequently by “Ag Engineering”. Thus ended the first attempt to develop, with a physics bias, a soils department at M.A.C. It should be recorded, however, that the M.A.C. Department of Physics continued for

some years under Professor W.A. Thomson, who not only continued the meteorological observations normally made at first class recording stations but also, in1929, installed a net of thermometers in the ground, 100 feet south of the Chemistry and Physics Building at surface, 4”, 10”, 20”, 40”, 66”, 9 feet and 15 feet depths. Galvanometer readings by means of thermocouples extending through leads into the basement of the Chemistry and PhysicsBuilding were recorded every week, for over three years, by Charlie Gibson who acted as official meteorological observer. A report of the valuable pioneer soil temperature project was published by Professor W.A. Thomson after he left the institution and after M.A.C. Physics Department and it equipment were absorbed by the University Department of Physics.(W.A. Thomson, 1934. Soil Temperatures at Winnipeg. Sci. Agric. Vol. XV, p 209-217.)

b) Soils as subject matter with in the Department of Chemistry

A new concept of soils was introduced to M.A.C. by A.J. Galbraith who was

appointed Associate Professor of Chemistry in the fall of 1915, and who later became Head of the M.A.C. Chemistry Department. As a former member of the Chemistry Department at O.A.C., Professor A.J. Galbraith took some training with the U.S. Soil Survey and became particularly interested in chemistry as applied to soils, and also, while at O.A.C., initiated some preliminary soil survey work in Ontario. He was able to persuade the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture that study should be made of Manitoba soils, and in the summers of 1917 and 1918, financed by the Manitoba Department of

Agriculture, he made a number of road traverses by car to examine soils in the southern portion of the Province. He used colored pencils to delineate, on the map, the soil types noted along the road traversed, and recorded in a note book (and in the style then in vogue in the U.S. Bureau of Soils) the profiles of the soil types observed.

Unfortunately, Professor A.J. Galbraith’s duties as head of the Chemistry Department under war time conditions, and as Officer-Commanding the M.A.C.company of the University C.O.T.C., together with the lack of any assistant in the soil survey work undertaken, made it impossible for him to complete the soil map or put his findings in the form of permanent records before his untimely death in the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. Nevertheless, to Professor A.J. Galbraith of the M.A.C. Chemistry Department must go the credit of introducing the concept of a Manitoba Soil Survey, for the inspiration he gave and for the interest in soils which he aroused in at least one of his students, and for the enlarged vision the M.A.C. staff acquired from associating with him.

He was succeeded as Head of the Chemistry Department by Dr. C.B. Clevenger who had acquired the Hopkins’ concept of soils as a graduate student at the University of Illinois. However no further attempt was made to follow up the soil survey work initiated by Professor A.J. Galbraith until, in 1921, an agricultural survey was undertaken at the instigation of John Bracken shortly after his appointment as President of M.A.C.

This agricultural survey was undertaken in an attempt to obtain a comprehensive picture of agriculture in Manitoba. (J.H. Ellis, 1922. “Agronomic Conditions as Revealed by the Agricultural Survey 1921.” Proc. Western Can. Soc. of Agronomy. 1922) Three teams, made up of M.A.C. staff members, undertook this survey.

Armed with extensive questionnaire forms, the teams made a complete farm-to-farm survey in a selected township, and a random sampling of farms in the remaining portion of certain municipalities. It was intended that 15 municipalities, distributed over the province, should be covered by this survey, but in only 14 municipalities was the work actually completed, i.e.

(i) Swan River, Gilbert Plains, Ste. Rose du Lac, Russell, and Rosedale

(ii) North Cypress, Glenwood, Argyle, and the north half of Edward, Arthur and

Brenda

(iii) Stanley, Morris, Portage la Prairie, Ericksdale, and Whitemouth.

Each of these three agricultural survey parties consisted of one representative

from the Field Husbandry Department, one from the Animal Husbandry Department, and three member selected from various other departments of the College. Their assignment was to obtain data about the farms, the farmsteads, and the farm families in the assigned areas. However Dr. C.B. Clevenger of the Chemistry Department, (assisted at various times by W.F. Geddes and W.J. Parker) was assigned the task of making soil maps of the 14 municipalities. Six soil maps only were completed. These covered the municipalities of Hamiota, Argyle, Portage-la-Prairie, Stanley, North Cypress, and the south half of Arthur-Brenda. The map unit separations used in this survey were based on the observed textural classes of the surface soils. (Copies of these maps are included in a publication entitled “ Charts and maps accompanying the Progress Report on the Manitoba Agricultural Survey 1921” on file in the University and Provincial Libraries.)

At the request of the Chemistry Department, the M.A.C. Physics Department co-operated in this project by making mechanical analyses of representative surface soil samples as a check on the field observations and estimates of texture. In the progress of

this survey, soil samples (A, “surface soil”, 0-6 2/3”, B, “subsurface soil” 6 2/3 – 20”, and C, “Subsoil”, 20-40”) were obtained. Analyses of a number of these samples for total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium, were made in the M.A.C. Chemistry Department Laboratories, the data thus obtained are now preserved in the files of the Manitoba Soil Survey. With the completion of the Agricultural Survey, and the liquidation of the appropriate funds, Dr. C.B. Clevenger returned to the United States and soil survey work was discontinued. Thus ended the attempts at M.A.C. to study the soils of Manitoba within the Department of Chemistry.

(c) “Soils” as Subject Matter in the Department of Field Husbandry:

It was noted in the introduction that members of the original staff of the M.A.C. paid little attention to soils, and that the farm fields, on the Tuxedo site, were under the jurisdiction of the Field Husbandry staff which, at that time, acted as a service department to produce feed and pasture for the Animal husbandry Department. With the appointment of S.A. Bedford as Professor of Field Husbandry in 1908, some specimen plants were grown for class identification, but no serious attempts were made to organize experimental station projects on the farm fields. It should be recognized that the limited acreage of land on the Tuxedo site was an inhibiting factor.

When the first class of degree students graduated in 1911, T.J. Harrison was appointed as Assistant to Professor S.A. Bedford, and was put in charge of “clearing and breaking” the land on the site selected in Fort Garry as the new home for the M.A.C. After two seasons of this pioneering work, T.J. Harrison accepted the position of Superintendent of the Indian Head Experimental Farm, and in 1912 Professor S.A. Bedford was succeeded by Professor L.A. Moorehouse as Head of the Field Husbandry Department.

On moving from the Tuxedo site to the University of Manitoba in 1913-14, Professor L.A. Moorehouse decided that some field experimental work should be

initiated. In the spring of 1914, and under the care and management of J.H. Ellis (a first year student who had previous experience on the Brandon Experimental Farm) an area in the field west of the Chemistry and Physics Building (Buller Bldg) was laid out in five ranges of 24 plots, one-twentieth acre in size, and one range of 24 plots, one fortieth in size. In addition, seven one acre plots, located immediately west of Regina Crescent, were put under a crop rotation designed by Professor S.A. Bedford as a co-operative project with the Department of Agriculture.

The experimental plots which were sown to crop adaptation and variety tests can be considered the first field experimental station projects undertaken at the M.A.C. The appearance of these plots, near the buildings, so impressed Principal W.J. Black that when T.J. Harrison returned in the following season as Head of the Field Husbandry Department, he was given official blessing to expand experimental work on the college fields.

In 1915 the experimental area was extended to include all the land between Regina Crescent and the College buildings, and here, in addition to crop adaptation and crop improvement projects, soil and crop management experiments were undertaken.

Under Professor T.J. Harrison, the Field Husbandry Department developed rapidly as a unique organization with various subdivisions. By 1918, these subdivisions consisted of:

(i) Cereal Breeding and Improvement under Professor W.T.G. Wiener (who succeeded A.R. Judson and J. Bridge);

(ii) Forage Crop Breeding and Improvement under Professor W. Southworth;

(iii) Soil and crop management under J.H. Ellis, who after serving as student assistant and plot foreman for the four summers of his undergraduate years, was appointed to the staff as Experimentalist and Lecturer in Soil Management; and

(iv) The College Farm under T.Lloyd, farm foreman.

In the early 1920’s the area under the experimental station work of Cereal and Forage Crop Improvement, and of Soil and Crop Management experiments, increased until it included; half of the park field east of the gardens; the Barn field; all the land north of the centre road between the buildings and Pembina Highway south of the centre road, that later was put at the disposal of the Dominion Rust Laboratory.

It is significant to note, however, that during the period from 1919 to 1926, a change in emphasis took place in the Soil and Crop Management section of the Field Husbandry Department under J.H. Ellis. The spade work in crop management was gradually discontinued but soil fertility and soil management projects were extended and enlarged.

In 1919 the long term experimentswere laid down on the Fertility Field (Field 6). Other experiments in methods of fallow and stubble management, fallow substitutes, and in depths of plowing, etc., were carried out on four ranges west of the Fertility Field (Field 8); and methods of breaking grass and legume sod were undertaken on the six ranges lying between the Fertility Field and Regina Crescent (Field 4). Soil Management and fertility experiments also were initiated at country points, the most important of which were investigations into the fertility and management of peat lands at Balmoral and Matlock in 1922-23-24.