(Excerpt from A Review of Investigations in Soil Bacteriol...)
Excerpt from A Review of Investigations in Soil Bacteriology Soil fertility, broadly interpreted, denotes the crop-producing power of any soil under given climatic conditions, and is itself the resultant of many forces often opposed to one another. It'is no easy task to establish the correlation of these several forces, and to assign to each its true position as a factor in the creation of plant substance. We do know that suitable moisture and temperature conditions are indispensable not only for the absorption and assimi lation of the plant food in the soil, but also for the formation of this plant food. Granting, however, that the moisture and tem perature conditions are suitable, our inquiry is at once directed toward the ways and means whereby the soil is made to yield nour ishment to the plants growing upon it. Obviously, an intimate knowledge of the ways and means of plant-food production is, aside from its theoretical interest, of great practical concern, a fact which is exemplified by the benefits derived by our agricultural industries from the researches of the agricultural chemist. It was through the investigations ~of the latter that we have learned to know the con crete meaning of the term plant food, and have learned also to apply this knowledge to the incalculable advantage of society. But as the rapidly accumulating experimental data broadened. His horizon, the agricultural chemist was the first to recognize that chemical methods alone were wholly inadequate for a clear comprehension of the complicated processes occurring in arable soils. The keen insight of Hilgarda revealed the vast possibilities that lay in the joint application of chemical and physical methods in the study of soil fertility problems, and the splendid contributions of soil physics to scientific agriculture bear testimony to the soundness of his judgment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Edward Burnett Voorhees was born on June 22, 1856, at Minebrook, Somerset County, New Jersey. He was the son of John and Sarah (Dilley) Voorhees.
He was a descendant of Steven Coerte Van Voorhees, who emigrated from the Netherlands and settled on Long Island in 1660.
At twenty-one Edward entered Rutgers College, where he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1881.
The following year, he spent as assistant to Prof. Wilbur O. Atwater at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
In 1883, George H. Cook, then director of the New Jersey State Experiment Station, offered him the position of assistant chemist, which he accepted. In 1888, he was promoted to chief chemist, and in 1890, he became, also, professor of agriculture at Rutgers, in which position he served until his death. Consciously or unconsciously Dr. Cook had prepared his assistant to fill the place which by Cook's death in 1889 was suddenly left vacant, but it was not until 1893 that Voorhees was appointed thereto.
In 1896, he was made director of the College Station as well, and for some fifteen years he arranged the work of the two stations so that the College Station pursued fundamental research while the State Station set into practical application and made available to the farmers of New Jersey the scientific findings. Voorhees was president of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (1893 - 94), secretary-treasurer of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations (1897 - 1903), and president in 1904, vice-president of the State Board of Agriculture (1893 to 1901), and its president (1901 - 11).
In the summer of 1904, he visited the experiment stations of England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France, and Italy and brought home much valuable information. In 1898, he published Fertilizers, which was immediately accepted as a standard college textbook and went through thirteen editions; for use in secondary schools, he wrote First Principles of Agriculture (1896).
Edward collaborated with Herbert Myrick in preparing The Book of Corn (1903); in 1907 he published Forage Crops for Soiling, Silage, Hay and Pasture. Besides these books, he wrote numerous articles for scientific journals. Perhaps the founding of short agricultural courses for farmers was Voorhees' most useful work.
(Excerpt from A Review of Investigations in Soil Bacteriol...)
Voorhees had rare ability as a teacher, not only of students, but of the thousands of farmers with whom he spent much of his time, lecturing to them, listening to their problems, and advising them. He always emphasized his one great precept, "improve the land. "
Under his management the experiment farm carried out extensive field tests with respect to top-dressing of meadows, special crop fertilizers, spraying of orchards, control of strawberry weevil, egg production, milk sanitation, and many other problems. Lectures and demonstrations explained to the farmers of the state the principles underlying the failure or success of these experiments.
As a result of such leadership, there came a more intensive specialization of agriculture, improved farming practice, and larger returns for the effort expended. His skill in choosing able men to collaborate with him ensured continuation of the work when his own labor was finished.
On October 18, 1883, Voorhees married Anna E. Amerman, by whom he had two daughters and five sons.
