中美交流视野中的中国近代土壤调查——以金陵大学与地质调查所为中心

Soil Surveys in Modern China from the Perspective of Communication between China and America: A Case Study of the University of Nanking and the Geological Survey of China

1930年,金陵大学农业经济系在太平洋国际学会资助下启动了中国土地利用调查项目,拉开了中国大范围土壤调查的序幕。在金陵大学农业经济系主任卜凯、前农林科科长芮思娄的悉心筹划和努力下,加州大学土壤学教授萧查理被聘请来华,成为了首位主持此项工作的西方学者。由于后续资金问题,金陵大学草拟了第一份全国性土壤调查计划,提请中基会补助。地质调查所则抓住机遇,结合自身优势,顺利承接土壤调查工作,在中基会的资助下创设土壤研究室,并与金陵大学密切合作,相继聘请潘德顿和梭颇来华。最终,地质调查所凭借成熟的运作模式,充分发挥了西方学者的作用,在短短数年内实现了土壤学科的大发展。

In 1930,the Department of Agricultural Economics of Jinling University(later to become the University of Nanking),which supported by the Institute of Pacific Relations,launched the Chinese land-use survey project,thereby initiating the prelude to a large-scale soil survey in China.Under the careful planning and efforts of John L.Buck,Director of the Department,and John H.Reisner,who was the former head of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry,Charles F.Shaw,a professor of soil science at the University of California,was invited to China and became the first western scholar to preside over the project.Because of the problem of follow-up funds,Jinling University drafted the first national soil survey plan and submitted it to the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture for a grant.Seizing the opportunity and making best use of its advantages,the Geological Survey of China successfully took over the soil survey work from Jinling.It established a Soil Science Department with the support of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture,cooperated closely with Jinling,and successively hired Robert Larimore Pendleton and James Thorp to come to China.In the end,the Geological Survey,with its mature mode of operation,gave full play to the role of western scholars,and in just a few short years realized the great development of soil science in China.