William Edgar Tharp and Hugh Hammond Bennett: Early Soil Survey Interpretations for Agricultural Progress.

William Edgar Tharp was a soil scientist for the Bureau of Soils when he encountered Hugh Hammond Bennett on a field inspection. Bennett, the inspector of soil surveys for the Southern states, was favorably impressible with Tharp’s work. They shared an interest in using the soil surveys to improve agriculture. Bennett supported Tharp’s plans for reaching the farming public through publications. Tharp was particularly interested in converting part of the old cotton kingdom in the loess belt along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers into pastures for cattle production.