Edward Carl Johnson. Identified with the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan since the fall of 1912, Edward Carl Johnson is now dean of the division of college extension and is also superintendent of farmers’ institutes and state leader of county agent work. At first his work was that of superintendent of institutes and demonstration in the division of college extension. Since September, 1915, his duties have been as just described.
Mr. Johnson is an expert in several departments affecting the broad science of agriculture. His authorship of a number of bulletins and monographs prove this. But his work has not been confined to a laboratory. He is a man of much enthusiasm and a successful worker in the co-operative movement between the agricultural school and the practical farmer.
Since coming to Kansas he has given special attention to extension work, increasing the number of farm bureau and county agents in Kansas from one to seventeen, by July 1, 1916, and organizing extension schools for both men and women. In that way the usefulness of the splendid college at Manhattan has been broadly extended to those persons who most need its advice and co-operation.
Dean Johnson is a Minnesota man by birth, and was born in Waseca County, April 18, 1880. His parents, August and Josephine (Peterson) Johnson, were born in Sweden, were married in the United States, and after their marriage located on a farm in Waseca County, Minnesota, where the son, Edward C., spent his youth. While on the farm he gained something of that practical knowledge which is at the basis of all successful farming. He attended the country, schools and in 1901 completed the high school course at Waseca. After a year as a teacher in a district school near the old home, he entered the University of Minnesota in the liberal arts department, and was graduated A. B. in 1906. During his senior year in the university he was assistant instructor in botany, a subject in which he specialized and which became the basis for his later work. During 1906-07 he was instructor in botany at the University of Minnesota, and during the same year continued his post-graduate work. In the spring of 1907 he received his Master of Arts degree.
From the University of Minnesota he went direct to Washington, District of Columbia, and there became assistant plant pathologist in the Department of Agriculture. In 1908 he was made plant pathologist in charge of the cereal diseases work of the department. This was the field of his study and research until he came to the Kansas State Agricultural College four years ago.
During the winter of 1910-11 he took graduate work in the George Washington University at Washington, District of Columbia. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Association of Farmers’ Institute Workers, a member of the Botanical Society of America, of the American Phyto Pathological Society and of the National Geographic Society. He also belongs to the national honorary fraternities of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Alpha Zeta and Phi Kappa Phi. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Congregational Church. In 1911 he married Miss Ruth Daniels of West Medway, Massachusetts. Their two children are named Carola and Josephine.
In addition to the routine of his duties which bring him in practical contact with the farmers of the great State of Kansas, Mr. Johnson has a growing reputation as an author, and besides numerous articles that he has contributed to farm journals and newspapers, he is author of a number of technical treatises. A brief description of these is as follows: “The Rusts of Grains in the United States,” United States Department of Agriculture B. P. I. Bulletin No. 216, 1911, Mr. Johnson being a co-author with E. M. Freeman; “The Loose Smuts of Barley and Wheat,” United States Department of Agriculture B. P. I. Bulletin No. 152, 1909, also co-author with E. M. Freeman; “Timothy Rust in the United States,” United States Department of Agriculture B. P. I. Bulletin No. 224, 1911; “Methods in Breeding Cereals for Rust Resistance,” Proceedings of the American Society of Agronomy, Vol. 2, pages 76-80, 1910: “Floret Sterility of Wheats in the Southwest,” Phytonathology, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1911; “The Smuts of Wheat, Oats, Barley and Corn,” United States Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin No. 507, 1912; “A Study of Some Imperfect Fungi Isolated from Wheat, Oat and Barley Plants,” United States Department of Agriculture Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 1, No. 6, pages 475-492, 1914; “Farmers’ Institutes in Kansas; A Handbook for Institute Officers,” Agricultural Education, Vol. 1, No. 22, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1913; “The Smuts of Kafir, Other Sorghums and Broom Corn,” Agrieultural Education, Vol. 6, No. 4, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1914; “Contour Farming in Kansas,” Division of College Extension, Circular No. 7, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1914; “The Agricultural Agent and Farm Bureau Movement in Kansas,” Extension Bulletin No. 2, Kansas State Agricultural College.