Lawrence Kirk

Lawrence Eldred Kirk (1886 to 1969) was a Canadian agronomist best known for introducing crested wheatgrass to Canada and helping to control the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Born in Bracebridge, Ontario, he took degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, where he was instructor in agronomy and, from 1920 to 1931, Professor of Field Husbandry, and a doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 1927. In 1931 he became Dominion Agrostologist and head of the Division of Forage Crops of the Experimental Farms Service in Ottawa, in 1937 Dean of the College of Agriculture at Saskatchewan, and in 1947 Chief of the Plant Industry Branch in the agricultural division of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, retiring in 1955. He received the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada in 1968 and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Saskatchewan in 1949.