A long absence from this blog, but now emerging from the chaos to try to get communications in order. (Except for email, that will never be up to date.) Here now I'll share an edifying bit of reading from my research yesterday in the collections of the Institute for Regional Studies, specifically the Lawrence Root Waldron Collection. L. R. Waldron was the founder of the Dickinson sub-station for ag research, where he served the last generation of homesteaders with his research on dry farming and forages, and he went on to become a pivotal agronomist, a shaper of the wheat industry on the northern plains. He was a brother of C. B. Waldron, the first faculty member hired at NDAC, and a protege of Henry Luke Bolley. That agronomic lineage, Bolley to Waldron, is fascinating. Grasp that, and you understand how shallow and simplified is our common knowledge of the contours of agricultural history on the plains. I'm learning, though.

I concluded the research day with a close reading of L. R. Waldron's obituary (he died in 1954). The latter part of it goes beyond the usual credits for his scientific contributions and discusses his life of the mind. So I quote from it here.

During his college years at NDAC, Dr. Waldron labored in the experimental fields for 12 1/2 cents an hour, declaring later it was during this period that he was inspired with the science of plant breeding. . . .

While on campus he became known as the greatest user at the library and it was believed he had read more books than anyone on the faculty.

When reading in his own field he filled books with penciled annotations, particularly when he found a doubtful statement or errors. His reading covered a wide field, including a study of evolution, of the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, sorcery and witchcraft.

He was one of the college's earliest plant collectors and the herbarium includes many specimens he gathered in his early days in the state. He traveled all over North Dakota and displayed a wide range of interests.

Thanks, I needed that.