We've got the dirt on Civil War soil: Illinois researchers want to take new samples to see what's changed. Findings could help farmers today

Andrew Margenot, 1861 sample and two more jars in barn (University of Illinois)

I love going off on a tangent. On occasion in this blog, I start with the kernel of an idea that involves the Civil War, and then march off in multiple directions to find out about the environment and culture in which an event occurs.

One example in the Picket, from 2014: “What do USS Monitor, Jimmy Fallon have in common? Saugerties, NY. This town morphed from industrial 'Inferno' to a cool tourist spot.” It started with a mark on a part from the famous ironclad and expanded to a study of an artsy Hudson River town.

Weird, right?

So it may come as no surprise that I was drawn to this headline: “After historic find, University of Illinois soil scientists want to dig up more on state's land.” They want to resample about 450 sites and are asking landowners and producers for permission to dig.

This sample dates from 1913 and details depth (University of Illinois)

About 8,000 soil samples -- packed into jars in a university barn that will soon be demolished -- go back to the mid-19^th century, with a few dating to the Civil War. I was all in. I recently reached out to University of Illinois soil scientist Andrew Margenot about the discovery and why soils are sampled and what we should know about dirt from the past.

It turns out most of the samples are from the 1920s, with a larger group from the 1980s. By 1900, most Illinois prairies were being used for agriculture. Researchers now want to resample areas where these soil samples were taken decades ago.

Margenot’s responses have been edited.

Q. Can you please tell me more about the November 1861 jar? How full is it, any characteristics? From what county?

A. Fairly full, though not yet analyzed. It was sampled from “virgin prairie” in Perry County. The ink writing isn’t very legible or intact.

Q. Any others from the Civil War (1861-1865)?

A. To our knowledge, only a couple more are in this period. (Picket research: About 16 companies of soldiers were raised in Perry County during the Civil War. The population was about 6,000. Coal reserves and a railroad spurred growth around that time)

Q. Do you have any idea of the state of soil in Illinois at the time of the Civil War? Did farmers have any way in the 1860s to amend or improve the soil?

A. So much to say here. In short, yields were 5-10x lower than they are today, and the major source of nutrients inputs were manures, with some scattered availability of bone meal, guano, and phosphate rock as phosphorus and nitrogen sources.

Q. How were these soil samples taken in the 19th century? Has the technology for taking them changed?

A. Not too different: using a hand auger or a metal tube of some sort. Corkscrew augers may have been used back in the day. As for farming practices, the moldboard plow was becoming popular at that time.

Farming was booming by the Civil War (Northern Illinois University Digital Library)

Q.  Roughly what is the time frame for most of the jars? Is each of the jars being emptied? What is done with the contents?

A. 90% are 1910-2012. We are preserving the soils in the jars.

Q. How many total jars are/were in the barn? I assume they have been known about, but when were they most recently examined?

A. About 8,000. They were last examined by Professor Ted Peck (who died in 2003). We’re picking up the baton from him..

Q. What kind of analysis are you doing with the jar contents? What specifically can you learn from each?

A. We are currently measuring total P (total concentration of phosphorus in the soil), and will be measuring other basic soil properties such as pH and variables such as total organic carbon (C) that will help us understand holistically how soils and their fertility have changed over time.

Q. Why is soil resampling so important? What are specific potential benefits for the state? 

A. (This response is from a web page about the soil archive project): “We wish to resample these same locations in order to identify how soils have changed over time in Illinois.

"By doing so, we can understand soil changes as far back as 1899 to present day – over 120 years. This would yield unprecedented insight to our state’s soil resource base, and enable improvements in soil fertility management and conservation, including much needed updates to the Illinois Agronomy Handbook.”

Nearly 8,000 jars were stored in the barn (University of Illinois)