11(12 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Salt Works, at Syracuse, N. Y, There lie remained until 1869, mak- 

 ing in the meantime important contributions upon the chemistry of 

 brines and reporting upon the salt deposits in Canada and Louisiana. 

 A portion of each year was spent at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

 as professor of physics and chemistry. He resigned from this posi- 

 tion early in 18G9 to accept the professorship of chemistry in the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, at the instance of his old friend 

 and classmate at Gottingen, President W. S. Clark of the college. 



His familiarity with the methods of agricultural instruction in 

 Germany and his high educational standards made him an influential 

 factor in shaping the courses of the young institution. Industrious 

 and resourceful to a degree, he made the most of inadequate accom- 

 modations and equipment and introduced the laboratory method of 

 instruction in his department. This, together with the attention 

 which he gave to the j^ractical applications of chemistry in agriculture 

 and the industries, served to make his courses both instructive and 

 jn-actical. His students soon came into demand for industrial posi- 

 tions, and his laboratories were for many years a training ground for 

 agricultural and technical chemists, who have been called to important 

 positions in every part of the country. As a teacher, it w^as his 

 advanced students especially who came to know him as a scholar, and 

 who received from him inspiration and encouragement for further 

 study, which has led an unusual number of them to go abroad for 

 that purpose. 



Almost immediately after going to the college Doctor Goessmann 

 took hold of the agricultural problems of the State, both practical 

 and scientific, and made them the subject of investigation. At that 

 time agricultural investigation had made but little headw\ay in this 

 country. He was a pioneer in every sense of the word, and he 

 brought to his studies a broad training in science, full confidence in 

 its ability to reveal the laws upon which agriculture depends, and 

 the true scientific spirit which seeks only the truth. In 1873 he was 

 appointed chemist to the State board of agriculture, and then began 

 a series of reports and lectures which has continued almost to the 

 present time. He investigated the fertilizer industry of the State, 

 at that time in a most unsatisfactory condition, outlined changes in 

 the existing law", and established an efficient system of official control, 

 the first of its kind in any State. 



He early introduced the valuation system, which enabled farmers 

 to intelligently interpret the results of analysis, established confi- 

 dence in the value of agricultural analysis, and dispelled the illusions 

 of the day as to special mysterious qualities of fertilizer mixtures not 

 represented by their analysis. His rejDorts were replete with in- 

 formation upon the condition of the fertilizer trade, the sources of 

 fertilizing materials, the manurial requirements of crops, the use of 



