Edmund Ruffin

Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865), American agriculturist, born in Virginia and largely educated at home. As manager of his family's plantation, he found that poor farming methods—dependence on one crop, inadequate drainage, and haphazard plowing—had depleted the fertility of the soil. He also found that applications of marl on farmland resulted in improved crops. His book An Essay on Calcareous Manures (1832) and his lectures on scientific farming attracted a wide following. Ruffin was also a supporter of slavery and a secessionist. In despair when the Confederacy lost the Civil War, he committed suicide.