Edward H. Faulkner (1886-1964) was a personable gentleman from Elyria, Ohio who worked as an agricultural agent in the upper Ohio and Erie basins. After witnessing the soil being 'worn-out', Faulkner's concern with a 'problem vital to Man's survival on this planet' led him to search, through observation and experimentation, for ways to care for the soil. Faulkner's genius was to question the use of the plow. He came up with the remedy of using the 'disc plow', which cuts up and incorporates organic matter into the soil, rather than burying them deep in the subsoil, insuring healthy and fertile soil.

Faulkner was one of the first true conservationists. His ideas were considered 'mad' and without merit, until after his death when soil experts and scientists began to admit 'We didn't pay attention, and we should have.'