6 GROWTH OF PLANTS 



Europe, visiting biological laboratories and experiment stations and con- 

 sulting mth prominent men in biology. During this trip the nucleus of the 

 present library was purchased. The purchases consisted mainly of complete 

 bound sets of German, English, and French periodicals in botany, biology, 

 and chemistry, including a complete set of Justus Liebig's Annalen and 

 several thousand German dissertations. The German publications and some 

 publications in other languages that were for sale in Germany were pur- 

 chased on very favorable terms because of the highly inflated German 

 currency. 



Mr. Arthur and the writer spent the rest of 1922, 1923, and some of 1924 

 in working mth The J. G. White Engineering Corporation, the builders of 

 the laboratories, in designing and equipping the laboratories. Because of 

 the great amount of control equipment that was installed for the first time 

 in biological laboratories this proved to be a rather arduous task. A refrig- 

 eration room was built to run at a regulated temperature considerably be- 

 low freezing in which several thermostatically controlled chambers were 

 placed to give the constant temperatures needed for plant studies. A scrub- 

 ber system was installed to scrub the flue gas from the boilers as a source 

 of carbon dioxide for the greenhouses. The greatest amount of control 

 apparatus was developed for the proposed studies on light. Much of this is 

 described and illustrated in Chapter IX, "Plants Grown under Controlled 

 Environmental Conditions." 



During the period of building, much attention was given to selecting the 

 scientific staff for the Institute. We were anxious to get research started at 

 an early date. Dr. L. O. Kunkel came to Yonkers in the spring of 1923 and 

 started his work on the yellows disease of plants. This work is described 

 later in the first chapter. Mr. Arthur was working on the Botrytis disease 

 of tulips under the direction of Prof. H. H. Whetzel of Cornell, and on 

 the fireholding qualities of tobaccos treated with various salts, and the 

 writer was studying germination problems. Research did not start in full 

 force, however, until the building was finished and a bigger staff was assem- 

 bled in the fall of 1924. 



Aims and Scope of Work of the Institute 



From our studies of biological laboratories in the United States and 

 Europe, we came to six conclusions concerning the aims, organization, and 

 scope of the work to be undertaken at the Institute that would make it most 

 serviceable in plant science at the time. 



(1) It should do basic research, as had been determined by the founder, 

 but basic research should not be contrasted mth applied research as pure 

 and applied research had been contrasted in some European laboratories, 

 with harm, as we believed, to best progress. We felt that any project or 

 problem tackled should be studied in all its relations, including its meaning 

 in nature, in agriculture, and in the industries. Our later experience has 



