Human Welfare

The essence of research, as it has come down to us, is that it must be tied inseparably to human welfare. I cite Dr. W. O. Atwater, one of the pioneers of modern human nutrition. He was director of the first State agricultural experiment station, the one in Connecticut. He and two associates designed the first calorimeter for the study of human metabolism in relation to food consumed and energy expended. He published in 1869 the first analysis of an American food, corn, and later (1896) published as a Department bulletin tables showing the composition of familiar foods. It was the first such publication in the United States.

Dr. Atwater organized and became the first director of the Office of Experiment Stations in the Department in 1889. This position gave him an excellent opportunity to arrange for nutrition studies in cooperation with State experiment stations and other agencies interested in developing this young science. In his first annual report he said: "In studying the food of animals we have no right to neglect the food of man." One of the first cooperative studies of the Office of Experiment Stations was a survey to find out what people in different areas actually ate.

To him the problems of human nutrition included what the body needs in its food, what nutrients the different foods supply, how the nutrients are utilized by the body, what diets are actually used in different regions, and what foods and methods of food preparation furnish the most economical and healthful diet. All this, he said, leads to the fundamental question : How can national food production be made to yield best returns in economic progress and social welfare? Although many advances have been made in the study of human nutrition since Dr. Atwater's death in 1907, research in this field still follows the pattern he laid down.

The respiration calorimeter for the study of the energy relations of nutrition to the human body was developed by Dr. Atwater, E. B. Rosa, and F. G. Benedict in the basement of the chemical laboratory of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. At the same time, Atwater, with other coworkers, devised an improved type of bomb calorimeter for the determination of the fuel values of foods by burning them in compressed oxygen.

Atwater's work on human nutrition later grew into an Office of Home Economics, which in 1923 became the Bureau of Home Economics, and in 1943 the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics.

The Soil

Hand in hand with dedication to human welfare is the inherited love and concern for the soil, its use, conservation, and nature. Curtis F. Marbut is one of the great names in the development of soil science in the United States. Dr. Marbut came to the Department in 1909 from the University of Missouri at the request of Milton Whitney, chief of the Bureau of Soils. At that time the views of the famous German soil chemist, Justus Liebig, dominated the thinking of most students of soils and plant nutrition. Liebig's theory was that the soil was a sort of reservoir from which man could take out no more than he put in. The lack of wide variations in soils of western Europe, and the necessity for intensive cultivation (with constant application of manures and fertilizers) made the Liebig theory seem reasonable to scientists of England, France, and Germany. But it did not fit soil conditions in the United States.

Meanwhile, a school of eminent soil scientists had developed in Russia, where the large expanse of the country included wide differences in geographic features and soil types, some of which were extremely fertile, in contrast to the generally impoverished soils of western Europe. The Russians departed from the Liebig theory, which stressed the analysis of plants and soils, and went outdoors to study soils in field and garden.

Marbut recognized that useful understanding of soils must begin with the soils themselves. He recognized the contributions of the Russian scientists and was stimulated to develop a program of field study in the United States that incorporated many of their ideas. But he went considerably farther into the detailed study and classification of the local soil types that must be used as a basis for giving recommendations to individual farmers.

Whitney had already departed from the Liebig theory when Marbut joined him in 1909. In fact, he went almost to another extreme in advancing his belief that all soils had sufficient nutrients to support plant growth and that yields of crops were determined by rainfall and other factors of climate, by mechanical condition, by management, and by the presence of toxic compounds in the soil.

Marbut had the ability to see much truth in all of these schools of thought, and he used all of them to build a body of soil science that fitted conditions in the United States. He laid the foundation for the present system of soil classification and mapping. Although improvements and refinements have been made since his death in 1935, he left us the tools with which to fashion a modern soil science.

We are using Marbut's tools—and Marion Dorset's, Theobald Smith's, L. O. Howard's, Harvey Wiley's, W. O. Atwater's.

THE AUTHOR

Ernest G. Moore, coordinator of information for the Agricultural Research Administration, joined the Department of Agriculture as a writer in 1929. He has been in charge of information for the Bureau of Plant Industry, chief of the Department's Press Service, and Assistant Director of Information in Charge of Press and Radio. Mr. Moore is a graduate of North Carolina State College and for 2 years was assistant editor at the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.