Franklin Hiram King was born on June 8, 1848, on a farm near Whitewater, Wis. He became the first professor of soil science at the UW-Madison; he studied soil water, drainage, tillage, irrigation, swamps, nitrate movement, erosion by wind on sandy soils, the construction of silos, maintenance of country roads, making of silage, and the comparative value of warm and cold water for dairy cows. Program speakers Peter Jacobs, Alfred Hartemink (Soil Sci. chair), Phil Barak, and Jingyi Huang.