EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol.. XTX. OcToBKR. liH)7. No. 2. 



Professor Wilbur Oliii At water, of Connecticut, whose death, Sep- 

 tember 22, 1907, terminated an ilhiess of nearly three j'ears, was for 

 many years a leader in the experiment station movement in the United 

 States. He was born at Johnsburg, New York, May 3, 184-1, and 

 received his acadendc training at the University of Vermont and 

 "Wesleyan University, jNIiddletown, Conn., graduating from the latter 

 institution in 1805. He received the degree of doctor of philosophy 

 from Yale University in 1869, after a period principally spent in 

 studying agricultural chemistry under Professor S. AV. Johnson. 

 There he also came under the influence of Professor W. H. Brewer. 

 At this time he showed the desire to work in fields of science giving 

 promise of early enlargement, and the ability to forecast correctly 

 the lines of development. — characteristics which largely determined 

 his future success. 



As part of his work for his doctor's degree he made a considerable 

 number of analyses of several varieties of Indian corn — the first 

 work of the kind done with modern methods on this side of the 

 Atlantic. 



From 1869 to 1871 he studied agricultural and physiological chemis- 

 try at the Universities of Leipsic and Berlin, and acquainted himself 

 with the P^uropean agricultural experiment stations. After his return 

 to America his first experience as a college professor was at the Uni- 

 versity of Tennessee and the JNlaine State College. He was thus 

 brought into close touch with the national movement for agricultural 

 education and research. 



Coming to Wesleyan University in 1873 as professor of chemistry 

 he was again brought into close association with Professors Johnson 

 and Brewer at New Haven, and with other agricultural leaders in 

 Connecticut. He also became intimate with Orange Jucld, the 

 founder and long-time editor of the American Agriculturist, who 

 had but recently given to Wesleyan, his alma mater, a hall of natural 

 sciences, in which Professor Atwater had his laboratory for more 

 than thirty years. 



With these men as associates and advisers. Professor Atwater, 

 fresh from his observations of the agricultural experiment stations 



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