on the geology, botany, agriculture, and other economic features of the state. He found, however, that he had strong opposition in the legislature and among the farmers which must be overcome. To do this he wrote his first report to the governor on the condition of the survey, and placed on exhibition at the State Fair a collection of soils and marls which he used in explaining to legislators and farmers the objects of the survey and its importance to them and to the state. From his previous investigations he was enabled to advise regarding soil peculiarities and needs, and thus won the confidence and support of the masses. Hilgard thus in the very beginning of his great career passed through his "baptism of fire" with lawmakers and the always suspicious farmer, and showed that same ability, skill, determination and personal magnetism that afterward characterized his numerous fights for what he believed to be right and necessary for the cause of agriculture.

One of the chief characteristics in Hilgard's nature was the extreme care, accuracy and attention to detail that he gave to everything that he undertook, and this is strongly shown in the results of the Mississippi survey, which combined observations on the geology, botany and soils of the state. His field notes taken on his trips have been preserved and are interesting reading.

In his movements from place to place in search of geological outcrops he was quick to note the sharply outlined differences in the native tree and plant growth on the several types of soil, and especially the differences in behavior and durability of soils under continued cultivation. He became deeply interested in these observations and determined to make them the subject of special study, realizing that the farmers themselves should secure some benefit from the survey. Mississippi seems to have been especially favorable for such observations, for it was very largely covered with a growth of native timber and had a great variety of soils, from the poor sandy long-leaf pine

lands of the coast region, the richer loams and black clays of the interior, to the calcareous lands of the bluff region and the remarkably rich alluvial lands of the river. Thus were begun those studies of the chemical, physical and other properties of soils that became his life work and which, extending to others states and countries, have brought him honors and renown over the entire civilized world.

One of his interesting and valuable observations, and one that aided him greatly in his gelogical work, was that a change in tree growth was an index to changes in geological formations and thus served as a guide to outlines of the latter.

The state university fitted up for him a small chemical laboratory where he made analyses of soils, marls, etc., and here, as he told the writer, he worked all day and far into the night, using one hand in chemical analysis and the other in writing his report, as it was imperative that he should complete the latter and visit Spain. In 1860 was finished and printed his report on the geology and agriculture of Mississippi, an octavo volume of 391 pages in which were given in detail his observations on the geological formations and agricultural features with many chemical analyses of the important soils. This work is still regarded as a standard authority on the geological formations and soils of Mississippi and the southwest. A geological and agricultural map accompanied the report.

During the Civil War the exercises of the University were suspended, and Hilgard as state geologist was placed in charge of the library and equipment by the governor and thus escaped service in the army. He was appointed an agent of the Confederate "Nitre Bureau," and at the siege of Vicksburg was ordered to erect calcium lights on the bluffs for the illumination of the Federal gunboats in their attempt to pass the city. The fleet, however, passed before he could complete the arrangements for adequate light.

When the University was reorganized in 1866, he was elected Professor of Chemistry, which title was changed to that of Professor of Experimental and Agricultural Chemistry in 1871. (It was the writer's good fortune this early to have become a member of his first class, in which a mutual friendship and loyalty began that continued up to the time of his death, a period of fifty years.) In the laboratory he continued his studies into the chemical and physical properties of soils in their relation to crop production, and established a small farm for culture experiments.

Although he relinquished the position of state geologist to another, he continued his interest in the further study of the geology of Mississippi and other southern states, or as he termed it "The Mississippi Embayment." In 1867, at the request of the Smithsonian Institution, he made an examination of the Mississippi river delta, the rock-salt deposit of Petit Anse Island, Louisiana, and the cause of the formation of the great mudlumps that rise in the Passes near the mouths of the river and greatly interfere with navigation. He later made a geological reconnaissance of Louisiana for the New Orleans Academy of Sciences.

Professor Hilgard, in Mississippi as afterward in California, was always full of energy and activity in and out of the laboratory, working in the interest of the University, the state and especially the farmers; with the latter he was in close touch, advising and aiding them as far as possible in their difficulties, and he was regarded by them as a true friend. He was the first to analyze the cotton lint, oil, hulls and seed cake and to point out the loss which the farmer sustained by his habit of putting the whole seed on the land instead of having its valuable oil (which has no fertilizing value) expressed and sold and the cake alone used as a fertilizer. Professor Hilgard displayed quite an inventive genius in the laboratory, as was shown in his elutriator wheich he designed and made in the Mississippi laboratory for the mechanical separation

of soil particles. In it the flocculation or coherence of the particles suspended in the water column was prevented by a stirrer, the motive power being the works of an old clock to which was attached great weights which had to be wound up every morning by a strong negro janitor; water or electric motors were not to be had in those days.

In 1873 Professor Hilgard accepted the professorship of Geology and Natural History in the University of Michigan, but found no opportunity for research work in his favorite soil studies. While his associations there were delightful, he evidently longed to get in touch again with soil crucibles, beakers, funnels, soil solutions, and soil problems, for when, in 1874, the Regents of the University of California asked him to deliver a course of lecttures and to accept the position of Professor of Agriculture in that institution, he visited the state and gave the lectures; and seeing in California a more congenial climate and a splendid opportunity for new achievements in a new field of study, he consented to accept the position, and came to Berkeley early in 1875. He thus entered upon the field of his greatest activity in soil investigation, though greatly handicapped at the beginning by lack of facilities and by absence of interest in the department on the part of farmers and students, as well as by a spirit of "Do sit still, draw your salary and say nothing" on the part of those who should have come to his support. He protested against inactivity, and by the exercise of the same tact and perseverance and by the influence of his own enthusiasm and personal magnetism that won for him in Mississippi in 1858, he broke up the apparent indifference; a class consisting of Messrs. Christy, Edwards, Slate, and Soulé (each of whom afterward became a member of the University faculty) was recruited from other departments, and formed his first California class in agriculture; he also had a class in botany. A small tract of land was given him on which was established, in 1875, the first experiment station in the United States.

By correspondence and by visits to farmers' granges and meetings of farmers where he talked to them freely on farm topics, and by his readiness to respond to calls for information, he won their confidence and secured their co-operation in his work; and thus forty years ago he laid the foundation for the College of Agriculture that now in usefulness and in the scope of its activities is second to none in the United States.

During the thirty years in which he was director of the station he was constantly in receipt of inquiries on all subjects, not only from farmers, but from persons of other professions and even of no profession at all. He was, however, possessed of a remarkable store of information and was always ready to give freely of it to any one, as is shown by the forty or more letter books in which are preserved copies of upwards of 20,000 letters written by him in reply to such inquiries. His replies were always in full, and these forty volumes have a wealth of valuable information stored between the covers.

Prior to 1890 he established several outlying substations for the study of soil and culture problems peculiar to the several agricultural divisions of the state which are marked largely by differences in climatic conditions. The most important of these was the one at Tulare in the San Joaquin Valley, established for the purpose of studying alkali problems, in which he took special interest and pride.

Among his California activities there stands out prominently his studies on humid and arid soils, in which he was the first to point out their differences in depth and in physical and chemical characteristics; he was the first to explain endurance of drouth by culture crops in arid soils and why sandy soils are among the most productive in the arid region and the least so in the humid. He was interested not only in the soils of the United States, but in those of foreign countries and was constantly on the alert for new data.