Published in Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 68:904-906 (2004).
© 2004 Soil Science Society of America
677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA
DIVISION S-5—PEDOLOGY
Contributions of Edward Elway Free to American Soil Science in the Early 1900s
Eric C. Brevik*
Dep. of Physics, Astronomy, and Geosciences, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA 31698-0055
* Corresponding author (ecbrevik{at}valdosta.edu).
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ABSTRACT
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The early 1900s were a time of rapid growth in American soil science. Edward Elway Free is not well known but produced some excellent work during this time. Free majored in chemistry at Cornell University and graduated in 1906. He worked as a chemist with the University of Arizona from 1906–1907, as a physical scientist with the Bureau of Soils from 1907–1912, and as a private consultant in chemistry and physics after 1912. In 1917 Free earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He continued to run his consulting company until his death on 24 Nov. 1939. Publication trends over Free's career include publications in chemistry (1908–1910), eolian processes and soil physics (1909–1912), and economic resources (1912–1917). After 1917 his agriculturally related publications were in soil aeration and weather and climate.
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INTRODUCTION
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THE EARLY 1900s were a time of rapid growth in American soil science in both theory and practice. Milton Whitney was key in establishing an organized federal soil survey (Cline, 1977; Fanning and Fanning, 2001; Helms, 2002), followed by individuals such as George Coffey (Cline, 1977; Brevik, 1999; Tandarich et al., 2002) and Curtis Marbut (Cline, 1977; Tandarich et al., 1985, 2002; Buol et al., 1997) pushing new theories of soil genesis and classification. Instructors such as Collier Cobb at the University of North Carolina, Charles Kellogg at North Dakota State University, and Allen D. Hole at Earlham College were training young men such as Coffey, Hugh Hammond Bennett, Roy Simonson, Marlin Cline, Francis Hole, and Ralph McCracken, individuals who would go on to have a significant influence on American soil science (Helms, 2002). Russian ideas were introduced to the U.S. soils community by Coffey (Coffey, 1911; Cline, 1977; Brevik, 1999) and Marbut (Buol et al., 1997; Tandarich et al., 2002) and spread to soil students through instructors such as Kellogg and J.C. Russell at Nebraska (Simonson, 1997). William John McGee, M.F. Miller, and Bennett were pushing soil conservation ideas (Browning, 1977; Meyer and Moldenhauer, 1985; Helms, 2002). This was the setting in which Edward Elway Free conducted his soils career, and although he is not nearly as well known as some of the names already mentioned, Free made his own significant contributions to this era of rapid growth in American soil science.
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Early Education and Career
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Free was born on 3 May 1883 in Dagus Mines, PA to Spencer Michael Free, M.D., and May Irene (Elway) Free (Marquis, 1938). He attended the Bellefonte Academy, a college preparatory school in Bellefonte, PA that emphasized a classical education including Greek, Latin, mathematics, English, and natural science (Bellefonte Academy, 2002). While at Bellefonte Academy, Free won the senior debate and successfully completed the entrance examinations to be admitted to Cornell University (Bellefonte Academy, 2002). Free's transcripts show that he majored in chemistry at Cornell and also completed 13 quarter hours in physics and 10 quarter hours in economic geology and mineralogy; he would put both these additional disciplines to work during his career. Free received an A.B. from Cornell in 1906 (Fig. 1)
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Fig. 1. Edward Elway Free, as shown in the 1906 Cornell Class Book. Photo courtesy of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
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Free's first job was as an assistant chemist at the University of Arizona's Agricultural Experiment station from 1906–1907. His research at Arizona focused on copper chemistry, work undertaken as part of an effort to determine the effect of mine detritus on irrigation waters (Free, 1908a). Publications from his time in Arizona indicate that he concentrated on the solubility of copper (Free, 1908a). Apparently this often involved detecting very small quantities of copper, which lead Free to develop a new method for detecting these small quantities (Free, 1908b).
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Bureau of Soils Career
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Free joined the Bureau of Soils as a Physicist in 1907. He appears to have worked under F.K. Cameron in the area of Physical and Chemical Investigations. During his time with the Bureau of Soils, Free worked in soil physics, proceeded on to eolian processes, and finally worked in the area of economic resources.
Free's first assignment at the Bureau of Soils appears to have been investigation of flocculation/deflocculation phenomena in soils, work that lead to his first publication while with the Bureau (Free, 1910). This was rapidly followed by a series of soil physics publications on the physical condition of the soil, something that appears to have been a combination of soil texture and mechanical resistance (Free, 1911a), soil water movement (Free, 1911b), soil–plant relationships (Free, 1911c), physical constants in the soil (Free, 1911d), and soil temperature (Free, 1911e). Free apparently regarded soil physical properties to be the most important aspect of a soil as relates to plant growth because of the way those properties regulate water flow and availability, a belief that would have fallen in line with the theories of his boss, Whitney (Cline, 1977; Fanning and Fanning, 2001).
Although Free was publishing soil physics studies in 1910 and 1911, he must have been reassigned to research eolian processes before that time because his first eolian publication was also released in 1910 (Free and Westgate, 1910). It is in the area of eolian processes that Free did his most significant work in soils. Bureau of Soils Bulletin No. 68, a publication on eolian processes directed at a scientific audience (Free, 1911f), was Free's watershed publication in soils. In his letter of transmittal, Whitney stated that Bulletin 68 was an "...exhaustive review of the literature covering the subject, as well as the results of studies in the laboratory and the field..." (Free, 1911f). Bulletin 68 is set apart from earlier eolian works in that it appears to be the first to concentrate on the impact of windblown material on soil genesis as opposed to investigating wind and windblown material as a geomorphic process and deposit. One impressive aspect of Bulletin 68 is Free's observation that eolian dust should be able to introduce substances not present in local parent materials to the soil profile (Free, 1911f). Free did not actually conduct any experiments to show this, but his reasoning predated studies such as the Desert Project (Gile and Grossman, 1979) by over 50 yr. Free also made some observations and recommendations that are remarkably similar to modern thought concerning the protection of soil from wind erosion. Perhaps the most impressive observation was that Free openly stated that blowing soil was a threat to American agriculture (Free, 1911f). This statement was made 20 yr before the dust bowl and 20 yr before major soil erosion research was undertaken on a national scale in the USA (Meyer and Moldenhauer, 1985). Free also recognized that blowing soil was not limited to arid areas but occurred anywhere that vegetative cover was compromised. To address the problem of blowing soil, Free advocated the use of cover crops, decreased use of summer fallow, leaving crop stubble and residues on harvested fields, increasing soil organic matter content, and the planting of tree windbreaks. Each of these recommendations still has a place in modern soil conservation planning. Free also advocated clearing new agricultural land in narrow strips and not breaking the intervening ground until some form of cover had been established in the originally broken strips. In this way, there would always be some level of vegetative cover on the soil even when breaking new ground. The final 98 pages of Bulletin 68 are an exhaustive bibliography of known eolian references researched and assembled in collaboration with S.C. Stuntz.
Farmer's Bulletin 421 (Free and Westgate, 1910) was released about a year before USDA Bulletin 68 (Free, 1911f). The USDA Farmer's Bulletin series was similar to modern extension publications; it was a series directed at the average farmer and represented the USDA's attempt to communicate research findings so that farmers could put them to practical use (Douglas Helms, personal communication, 2002). Farmer's Bulletin 421 (Free and Westgate, 1910) sought to communicate information on soil erosion by wind and its prevention to the general farming community. Much of the material eventually published in Bulletin 68 (Free, 1911f) was originally published in Farmer's Bulletin 421 (Free and Westgate, 1910) as were many of the recommendations for limiting soil loss to eolian processes, albeit in less detail and with less scientific rigor.
Following his work on eolian processes the Bureau of Soils again reassigned Free. His studies focused on identifying possible sources of N and K in the American southwest. Free's work in this regard was published in a series of Bureau of Soils Circulars (Free, 1912a, 1912b, 1912c). The Circulars were short, journal article length publications that focused on one specific topic. A more complete account of Free's explorations for K sources was eventually published as Bulletin of the USDA No. 54 (Free, 1914). Bulletin of the USDA 54 was notable in that it attempted to relate the occurrence of potassium salts to landscape position. However, by the time it was published Free had already left the Bureau of Soils to pursue other opportunities.
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Post Bureau Career
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Free left the Bureau of Soils in 1912 to start his own consulting company, E.E. Free Laboratories, with offices at 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY (Marquis, 1938). Free described himself as a "consulting chemist and physicist" (Marquis, 1938). Despite his own job description, Free did not completely abandon soils related topics. Free received a Ph.D. in Botany from Johns Hopkins University in 1917, writing a dissertation titled "The Oxygen Requirement of Plant Roots in Relation to Soil Aeration" under Burton Edward Livingston, a Professor of Plant Physiology (James Stimpert, personal communication, 2001). Free continued to publish soils related research focusing on soil aeration during his consulting career (i.e., Cannon and Free, 1917; Free, 1925). However, Free also expanded into areas that significantly diverged from soils, such as weather (Free and Hoke, 1928) and the effects of sun exposure on human health (Millar and Free, 1929).
Free remained active in a number of scientific groups and endeavors throughout his life. He was the editor of Scientific American from 1924–1925, owned and edited a weekly news service, "The Week's Science," and lectured at New York University from 1926–1934 (Marquis, 1938). Free was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Washington Academy of Science, and the Acoustical Society of America and was a member of several other professional societies including the American Astronomy Society, the American Chemistry Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and Sigma Xi (Marquis, 1938). Free died on 24 Nov. 1939 (Marquis, 1940).
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CONCLUSIONS
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Edward E. Free was actively researching soil science issues during the early 1900s, a period of rapid growth in American soil science. His studies covered a wide range of soil-related topics, including soil chemistry, soil physics, soil erosion and genesis as influenced by eolian processes, natural potash sources, and soil aeration/root relationships. His most significant work, at least as it relates to modern soil science, was probably done in the area of eolian processes and their relationship to soil genesis. However, despite his wide array of soil-related work, Free never received a degree in agriculture, soils, or one of the other earth sciences and he never appears to have considered himself a soil or geoscientist. In his "Who's Who in America" listing Free described himself as a "chemist" while at Arizona, as a "physicist and scientist" during his time with the Bureau of Soils, and as a "consulting chemist and physicist" after starting his own company (Marquis, 1938). Free was also described as a "chemist by profession" in family records from the period when he was employed by the Bureau of Soils (Linda Harrison, personal communication, 2001). The work done by Free gives a glimpse into the wide range of classically trained scientists who participated in the early growth of soil science in America.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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Dan Yaalon, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, suggested E.E. Free to me as a subject worthy of study. Several individuals provided assistance as I researched Free, including Jennifer Conklin and Laura Linke, Rare and Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University, Linda Harrison, a genealogist of the Baer family (which includes E.E. Free), Bill MacLehose, Steinwald Alumni House at Johns Hopkins University, Linda McDaniel, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Roger Myers, Special Collections at the University of Arizona Library, James Stimpert, Archives at the Johns Hopkins University, and V. Thomas Wakula, Office of the University Registrar, Cornell University.
Received for publication July 30, 2003.
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REFERENCES
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- Bellefonte Academy. 2002. http://bellefonte.freeyellow.com/. downloaded 10/25/2002.
- Brevik, E.C. 1999. George Nelson Coffey, early American pedologist. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 63:1485–1493.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Browning, G.M. 1977. History and challenges in soil and water conservation and management. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 41:254–259.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Buol, S.W., F.D. Hole, R.J. McCracken, and R.J. Southard. 1997. Soil Genesis and Classification. Iowa State University Press, Ames.
- Cannon, W.A., and E.E. Free. 1917. The ecological significance of soil aeration. Science 45:178–180.[Free Full Text]
- Cline, M.G. 1977. Historical highlights in soil genesis, morphology, and classification. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 41:250–254.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Coffey, G.N. 1911. The development of soil survey work in the United States with a brief reference to foreign countries. Proc. Am. Soc. Agron. 3:115–129.
- Fanning, D.S., and M.C.B. Fanning. 2001. Milton Whitney: Soil survey pioneer. Soil Survey Horizons 42:83–89.
- Free, E.E. 1908a. The solubility of precipitated basic copper carbonate in solutions of carbon dioxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 30:1366–1374.
- Free, E.E. 1908b. Electrolytic determination of minute quantities of copper. J. Phys. Chem. 12:28–29.
- Free, E.E. 1910. The phenomena of flocculation and deflocculation. J. Franklin Institute 169:421–438 and 170:46–57.
- Free, E.E. 1911a. Studies in soil physics. I. The physical condition of soils. Plant World 14:29–39.
- Free, E.E. 1911b. Studies in soil physics. II. The movement of soil water. Plant World 14:59–66.
- Free, E.E. 1911c. Studies in soil physics. III. Soil water and the plant. Plant World 14:110–119.
- Free, E.E. 1911d. Studies in soil physics. IV. The physical constants of soils. Plant World 14:164–176.
- Free, E.E. 1911e. Studies in soil physics. V. Soil temperature. Plant World 14:186–190.
- Free, E.E. 1911f. The movement of soil material by the wind. USDA Bureau of Soils Bull. No. 68. Gov. Print. Office, Washington DC.
- Free, E.E. 1912a. An investigation of the Otero Basin, N. Mex., for potash salts. USDA Bureau of Soils Circ. No. 61. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
- Free, E.E. 1912b. Report of a reconnaissance of the Lyon nitrate prospect near Queen, N. Mex. USDA Bureau of Soils Circ. No. 62. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
- Free, E.E. 1912c. Nitrate Prospects in the Amargosa Valley, near Tecopa, Cal. USDA Bureau of Soils Circ. No. 73. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
- Free, E.E. 1914. The topographic features of the desert basins of the United States with reference to the possible occurrence of potash. USDA Bull. No. 54. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
- Free, E.E. 1925. Differences between nitrogen and helium as inert gases in anaerobic experiments on plants. p. 38–77. In W.A. Cannon (ed.) Physiological features of roots, with especial reference to the relation of roots to aeration of the soil. The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.
- Free, E.E., and T. Hoke. 1928. Weather: Practical, dramatic, and spectacular facts about a little studied subject. R.M. McBride & Company, New York.
- Free, E.E., and J.M. Westgate. 1910. The control of blowing soils. USDA Farmer's Bull. 421. Gov. Print. Office, Washington DC.
- Gile, L.H., and R.B. Grossman. 1979. The desert project soil monograph: Soils and landscapes of a desert region astride the Rio Grande Valley near Las Cruces, New Mexico. SCS-USDA. U.S. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
- Helms, D. 2002. Early leaders of the soil survey. p. 19–64. In D. Helms et al. (ed.) Profiles in the history of the U.S. soil survey. Iowa State University Press, Ames.
- Marquis, A.N. (ed.) 1938. Who's who in America. The A.N. Marquis Co., Chicago.
- Marquis, A.N. (ed.) 1940. Who's who in America. The A.N. Marquis Co., Chicago.
- Meyer, L.D., and W.C. Moldenhauer. 1985. Soil erosion by water: The research experience. Agric. Hist. 59:192–204.
- Millar, R., and E.E. Free. 1929. Sunrays and health. R.M. McBride & Co., New York.
- Simonson, R.W. 1997. Early teaching in USA of Dokuchaiev factors of soil formation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 61:11–16.
- Tandarich, J.P., R.G. Darmody, L.R. Follmer, and D.L. Johnson. 2002. Historical development of soil and weathering profile concepts from Europe to the United States of America. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 66:335–346.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Tandarich, J.P., C.J. Johannsen, and W.E. Wildman. 1985. James Thorp talks about soil survey, C.F. Marbut, and China. Soil Survey Horizons 26:5–12.
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
