William
Fairfield
Born in
Titusville, Pennsylvania, William Fairfield earned degrees in both agriculture
and horticulture from the University of Wyoming. He established a ranch near
Lethbridge in 1901 and was the first trained agriculturalist in Alberta. The
Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company placed Fairfield in charge of an
experimental farm, where he remained Superintendent from 1905 to 1945.
William
Fairfield was an important figure in agriculture and introduced the concepts of
trash cover, strip farming and crop rotation. He discovered that adding sulphur to the grey-wooded soils significantly increased productivity. William Fairfield
received an Honorary Doctor's Degree form the University of Alberta. He was
granted the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in 1953. In 1961,
Fairfield was honoured with the fellowship in the Agricultural Institute of
Canada.
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