Carl Hehn

Carl Hehn (1821 to 1875) was a Baltic German agricultural scientist who taught at the University of Dorpat, now Tartu. Born in Livonia, he studied at Dorpat, taught at Pskov and at the Dorpat Veterinary School, and managed an estate near Pskov where he introduced land ownership by peasants. From 1860 he served as secretary of the Livonian public benefit and economic society, editing its agricultural weekly and organizing the first all-Baltic agricultural fair in 1865. When an agricultural school was created at Riga he became its first professor of agriculture, and later full professor of agricultural technology, teaching soil science, plant science, economics, cattle breeding and the history of agriculture. His research covered soil liming and the effect of climate on Baltic farming, and he helped found the Baltic Forest Society in 1865. He died of tuberculosis in 1875 before finishing a dissertation on climate and Baltic agriculture.