262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



1861 had reached its t^yelfth edition ; had been translated into eight 

 different languages, and was used by scores of thousands of students 

 the world over. The current American translation of this work, 

 " Stockhardt's Principles of Chemistry," is very widely and pleasantly 

 known among teachers and students in this country. 



In 1844 Stockhardt began a course of popular agricultural lectures 

 before the Chemnitz Agricultural Society. To these lectures may be 

 traced the beginning of the movement which, eight years later, resulted 

 in the establishment at Mockern, Saxony, of the first of the agricult- 

 ural experiment stations, of which there are now over one hundred in 

 Europe and several in the United States, and from whose work, it may 

 be said without exaggeration, has emanated a great part perhaps the 

 greater part of our accurate knowledge of the principles of chem- 

 istry and physiology that underlie the right practice of agriculture. 

 On the occasion of the celebration, in 1877, of the twenty-fifth anni- 

 versary of the founding of the Mockern Station, three albums, with 

 photographs of the directors of the experiments at that time estab- 

 lished, were provided : one for the parent station at Mockern, one for 

 Professor von Wolff, its first director ; and one for Professor Stock- 

 hardt in consideration of his services in founding and promoting that 

 and other stations. 



From 1846 to 1849 Stockhardt was editor of the " Polytechnisches 

 Centralblatt," and from 1850 to 1855 of the " Zeitschrift fiir deutsche 

 Landwirthe." In 1848 he was appointed Professor of Agricultural 

 Chemistry in the Royal Academy at Tharandt, where a new chair had 

 been founded purposely for him, and where he has since remained. 

 Since then, extending his idea of popular agricultural instruction, he 

 has given plain conversational lectures to farmers' clubs and societies 

 in Saxony and other parts of Germany, explaining the improvement 

 in agriculture which chemical science has shown to be desirable, and 

 illustrating them with experiments where practicable. The more im- 

 portant of these lectures have been published with the title " Che- 

 mische Feldpredigten " (" Chemical Field-Sermons "), and have been 

 translated into several languages. In 1855 he established at LeijDsic 

 " Der chemische Ackersmann," a journal which was continued until 

 1876, when increase of years and cares, and the doing away of its 

 necessity by the establishment, with his aid, of another journal, *^Die 

 Landwirthschaftlichen Versuchs-Stationen," occasioned its discontinu- 

 ance. 



But this brief outline of his career gives very little idea of Stock- 

 hardt as a man, an investigator, a teacher, and an expounder of the 

 occult facts of science. To know him in these relations one must see 

 him at his home, among his friends, in his study, his laboratory, his 

 lecture-room, with students and farmers, and must read him in his 

 books. 



In appearance and demeanor he is plain and quiet. In social inter- 



