202 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED, 



These standards which were set by the Connecticut Station in the 

 early days have meant a great deal in working out a proper conception 

 of these institutions and in winning jiopular confidence in them. 



Doctor Johnson was born in Kingsboro, X. Y., July 3, 1830. His 

 early life was spent upon a large, well-managed farm, where he be- 

 came familiar with a wide range of agricultural practice. At an 

 early age he developed a taste for natural science, especially chem- 

 istry, and he is said to have fitted up a small laboratory of his own 

 on his father's farm. The relations of this science to problems in 

 farming appealed to him and gave him his original direction toward 

 scientific agriculture. 



After graduating from Lowville Academy he taught for several 

 years in the common schools, and later gave instruction in natural 

 science in the Flushing Institute, on Long Island, and the State Nor- 

 mal School, at Albany. He entered the Yale Scientific School in 

 1850, where he came under the influence of Profs. John B. Norton 

 and Benjamin Silliman, jr., and devoted himself especially to the 

 study of agricultural chemistrj-. 



In 1853 he went to German3\ continuing his studies for two years 

 with Liebig, Pettenkoffer, Erdmann, and von Kobell at Munich and 

 Leipsic. He traveled in France and England, giving special atten- 

 tion to the agricultural methods and the institutions in those countries, 

 and spent the summer of 1855 in stud}^ with Frankland in England. 



Thus well equipped, he returned to this country in the fall of 1855 

 to become chief assistant in chemistry in the Yale Scientific School, 

 in charge of the laboratory. The following year he was appointed 

 professor of analytical chemistry, and in 1856 he succeeded Prof. 

 John A. Porter in the chair of agricultural chemistry. His title was 

 changed in 1875 to j)rofessor of theoretical and agricultural chemistry, 

 and in this capacity he continued to serve in the Sheffield Scientific 

 School mitil 189G, when, on the completion of forty years of service, 



be retired as professor emeritus of agricultural chemistr}^ 



♦ 



Doctor Johnson's writings on agricultural subjects extend back to 

 1847. They continued without interruption up to the time of his 

 retirement, thus covering a period of more than fifty years. It was 

 through them that his greatest influence was exerted, and they car- 

 ried his name far beyond the boundaries of this continent. Together 

 with the stimulus he gave to agricultural investigation, they con- 

 stitute his greatest contribution.- 



He was a teacher through the written word. He understood well 

 how to make effective the work and Avritings of others, as well as his 

 own, and this gave to his writings a breadth of view which was espe- 

 cially valuable at the time. He was first of all an earnest student 



