Author: Cindy Lambert

A coordinated effort of national soil mapping began in the United States in 1899. It began with a nationwide partnership of federal, regional, state, and local agencies, private entities, and universities. This idea of a soil survey in our country, some say originated with Milton Whitney, a professor of geology and soil physics at the Maryland Agricultural College and a physicist at the Experiment Station. He published a paper in 1892, “Some Physical Properties of Soils in Relation to Moisture and Crop Distribution” in which he examined a number of soils.

The Pacific Rural Press was first established in San Francisco, California in 1871. It was formed to educate and serve the needs of California’s agricultural community, primarily addressing fruit and vegetable growers. It became a major agricultural journal that was published between the mid-nineteenth century and early twentieth century.