Editing Soil (section)

===Studies of soil formation===
{{See also|Soil formation}}
Scientists who studied soil in connection with agricultural practices considered it mainly a static substrate. However, the soil is the result of evolution from more ancient geological materials under the action of biotic and abiotic processes. After studies of soil improvement commenced, other researchers began to study soil genesis and, as a result, soil types and classifications.

In 1860, while in Mississippi, [[Eugene W. Hilgard]] (1833–1916) studied the relationship between rock material, climate, vegetation, and the type of soils that were developed. He realised that the soils were dynamic and considered the classification of soil types.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hilgard |first=Eugene W. |title=Soils: their formation, properties, composition, and relations to climate and plant growth in the humid and arid regions |year=1907 |publisher=[[The Macmillan Company]] |location=London, United Kingdom |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/24461 |access-date=19 September 2021}}</ref> (See also at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73975 Project Gutenberg]). His work was not continued. At about the same time, [[Friedrich Albert Fallou]] described soil profiles and related soil characteristics to their formation as part of his professional work evaluating forest and farmland for the principality of [[Saxony]]. His 1857 book, {{Lang|de|Anfangsgründe der Bodenkunde}} (First Principles of soil science), established modern soil science.<ref>{{cite book |language=de |last=Fallou |first=Friedrich Albert |title=Anfangsgründe der Bodenkunde |year= 1857 |publisher=G. Schönfeld's Buchhandlung |location= Dresden, Germany |url=http://digital.slub-dresden.de/fileadmin/data/321768043/321768043_tif/jpegs/321768043.pdf |access-date=15 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215223343/http://digital.slub-dresden.de/fileadmin/data/321768043/321768043_tif/jpegs/321768043.pdf |archive-date=15 December 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Contemporary with Fallou's work, and driven by the same need to accurately assess land for equitable taxation, Vasily Dokuchaev led a team of soil scientists in Russia who conducted an extensive survey of soils, observing that similar basic rocks, climate and vegetation types lead to similar soil layering and types, and established the concepts for soil classifications. Due to language barriers, the work of this team was not communicated to Western Europe until 1914 through a publication in German by [[Konstantin Glinka]], a member of the Russian team.<ref>{{cite book |language=de |last=Glinka |first=Konstantin Dmitrievich |title=Die Typen der Bodenbildung: ihre Klassifikation und geographische Verbreitung |year=1914 |publisher=[[Borntraeger]] |location=Berlin, Germany}}</ref>

[[Curtis F. Marbut]], influenced by the work of the Russian team, translated Glinka's publication into English,<ref>{{cite book |last=Glinka |first=Konstantin Dmitrievich |title=The great soil groups of the world and their development |url=http://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=chla3055800#mode/1up |year=1927 |publisher=Edwards Brothers |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |access-date=19 September 2021}}</ref> and, as he was placed in charge of the U.S. [[National Cooperative Soil Survey]], applied it to a national soil classification system.<ref name=Brady1984/>