EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXVII. October, 1912. No. 5. 



Record has already been made in these pages of the untimely 

 death of Dr. M. A. Scovell, director of the Kentucl^ Experiment 

 Station and head of the agricnltin-aldepartment of the State Univer- 

 sity. But the position of this man and the high esteem and affection 

 in which he was held demand for him more than formal notice. 



Melville Amasa Scovell was born at Broadway, X. J., February 

 26, 1855. At the time of his death, therefore, on August 15 last, 

 he was in his fifty-eighth year. His apparent recovery from his 

 sicloiess of a few 3'^ears ago, and the general robustness and vigor 

 which characterized him. gave him the appearance of being in the 

 prime of life and seemed to promise many years of service. His 

 taking away at a time when the results of so many years of labor 

 were coming into fruition and the outlook for the future was so 

 bright seemed especially to be regretted. But he lived to see his am- 

 bitions realized in an attitude of public appreciation for agricultural 

 education and research in his State, permanent financial support for 

 them, and an equipment for the experiment station e(]^ualled in few 

 States. These were in an unusual measure the product of his own 

 labors, and will remain a monument to his memory. 



Dr. Scovell's collegiate work was done at the University of Illinois, 

 then the State Industrial University, where he graduated in 1875 

 with the degree of B. S., specializing in chemistry. He remained 

 with the universit}^ for seven years after graduation, being succes- 

 sively instructor in chemistry, assistant professor, and later pro- 

 fessor of agricultural chemistry. He received the degree of M. S. 

 from the university in 1877, and of Ph. D. in 1908. While at the 

 university he gave considerable study to the production of sugar 

 from sorghum, worlving out with the late Prof. H. A. Weber a 

 method for obtaining sugar from this plant in quantities which at 

 prevailing prices was thought profitable. In 1883 and 1884 he was 

 superintendent of the Kansas Sugar Works at Sterling, Kans., and 

 the following year was special agent for this Department in the 

 erection of diffusion batteries for extracting sugar from sorghum 

 and sugar cane in Kansas and Louisiana. 



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