biography
| name: |
Bennett, Hugh Hammond
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1881–1960)
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| biography:
| Soil conservationist, born in Wadesboro, North Carolina, USA. Raised on a 1200-acre farm whose depleted soil made farming difficult, in 1903 he joined the Bureau of Soils at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and was soon working on problems of soil erosion. As supervisor of soil surveys (1909–28), he assessed agricultural possibilities in the Panama Canal Zone, inspected the land proposed for a territorial railroad in Alaska, and conducted soil surveys in Cuba. In 1928 he co-wrote the USDA report ‘Soil Erosion, a National Menace’, and persuaded Congress to fund an erosion control programme (1933). He directed the Soil Erosion Service in the Department of the Interior and, while a dust storm swept over the capital, appealed to Congress for more action on soil conservation (1935). Congress implemented the Soil Conservation Act, and Bennett became the first chief of the Soil Conservation Service. |
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