Thomas Lyttleton Lyon

Thomas Lyttleton Lyon (17 February 1869 – October 7, 1938) was an American soil scientist, textbook author, professor and head of the department of soil technology at the Cornell University College of Agriculture, and, for the academic year 1918–1919, president of American Society of Agronomy. In 1911 Lyon was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Quotes

The great achievements of plant breeding in the past have been mainly in physical characters, requiring only superficial knowledge and gross examination for recognition. Many of the improvements now demanded, however, require the most careful chemical examination of the product and the devising of careful means and methods of selection based on the knowledge thus obtained.
The first and still the most noteworthy achievement of this nature is the increase of the sugar content of the sugar beet. When the work on this subject was first started by Louis Vilmorin, the mother beets, which were supposed to contain the most sugar, were separated by their greater density, this being determined by throwing the beets into a solution of brine of such density that the greater number of them would float. The few heavier ones which were found to sink were retained as mothers and planted to raise seed. Later the methods were improved, and finally the percentage of sugar content in the different individual beets was determined by actual chemical analysis. This careful method of selection has been in operation for more than forty years, and has resulted in greatly increasing the sugar content in the beets, and has rendered their cultivation profitable where otherwise the industry would have failed.
- Improving the Quality of Wheat. Issue 78 of Bulletin (United States. Bureau of Plant Industry). U.S. Government Printing Office. 1905. p. 7. (120 pages)

Large areas of land in this country have deteriorated in productivity and have become compact and difficult to work on account of the gradual loss of organic matter. Naturally clay and heavy loam soils have suffered more in this way than have lighter soils. Where marked decrease in crop returns has occurred during the time that soils have been under cultivation, the difficulty can generally be traced to loss of organic matter more than to any other factor in plant growth. Compact soil, with consequent poor tilth, is one of the most common conditions in poor farming regions, and is usually associated with a low content of organic matter.
- Soils and Fertilizers. Rural text-book series. Macmillan. 1919. p. 41. (255 pages)

There are two ways in which legumes may benefit the soil: (1) When inoculated with certain bacteria they are able to take nitrogen from the air and incorporate it in their tissues, and these, when turned under, decay and become part of the soil. (2) Their residues cause the soil nitrogen to be more readily available than do those of other mature crops. This takes place whether or not the nitrogen content of the soil in increased by the legume. The growth of legumes, even when they are properly inoculated, does not always insure that the nitrogen content of the soil will be increased, but it will always be activated.
- Legumes as a Source of Available Nitrogen in Crop Rotations. Volume 500 of Bulletin (Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station). Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. 1929. p. 3. (22 pages)