Professor Involved in Important Dirty Work

It’s a dirty job but one that Ted Peck enjoys as the self-appointed keeper of the University of Illinois’ extensive collection of soils.

The collection includes about 3,000 jars of dirt from all over the state, the nation and even overseas. Some entries date from the 1800s.

“Some of these samples were sealed in glass jars and stored in a building before DDT, before the bomb, before pesticides,” Peck said. “They’re a benchmark for our soils today. They give us an opportunity to look at changes.”

The collection gives scientists a chance to use technology that wasn’t available when many of the samples were collected to find out how modern practices have changed the content and texture of soil.

Peck, a university agronomist, rescued most of the collection in 1963 from a building where students often had easy access to the jars and moved it to a new location where he could keep it under lock and key.

Peck focuses on compiling all available information about the university’s Morrow Plots, which have been cultivated since 1876 and are the oldest test plots in the country, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“In a sense, there’s never been a formal program there with anyone in charge,” Peck said. “I’m getting older, more interested in history, and I think there’s an interest in looking back at certain things about the plots.”

He’s compiling a file of everything ever written about the plots, and all the research done there.

“I hope to end all searches for information about them. These studies are important because they chronicle history.”

Among Peck’s finds are 24 of the 30 two-quart jars of dirt that university scientist J.H. Pettet collected and brought back in 1909 from England’s Rothamsted--which dates back to 1843 and is the oldest known test plot.

“Morrow Plots came into being partly because scientists here were aware of the work at Rothamsted,” he said. “Two men there had developed a process for producing fertilizer, and they were studying results with wheat and forages. Our people wanted to do the same thing for corn.”

Peck also found jars of soil samples from several different states contributed by C.G. Hopkins, who apparently went on a soil-collecting spree in the Southeastern United States in 1914.

“A key thing about Morrow Plots is the continuity of the practices maintained there,” Peck said. “Some plots have never been fertilized. We have the data, but there’s been a tremendous improvement in instrumentation.

“But I’m amazed at how good much of the old data is.”