106 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



value of different foods and the relations of food to muscular energy 

 and mental work. 



As the Chief of Nutrition Investigations in the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations, Professor Atwater planned and supervised investiga- 

 tions which were carried on in about twenty States. The results of 

 this Avork are embodied in about one hundred technical and popular 

 publications issued by this Department and the Storrs Experiment 

 Station, 



These jjublications have had a wide distribution and have been 

 extensively utilized in domestic science courses in colleges and schools 

 throughout the country and in the preparation of text-books and 

 manuals on human nutrition in this and other countries. 



In the judgment of comjDetent experts, tlie nutrition investigations 

 conducted under Professor Atwater's direction were more thorough 

 in their scientific methods, more extended in the scope and amount 

 of investigation, and more useful in the distribution and practical 

 application of their results than any other inquiry of the kind ever 

 undertaken in this country or in Europe. 



As a public official working in a wide way in the organization and 

 management of enterprises for the general good. Professor Atwater 

 has earned the lasting gratitude of his countrymen, especially by what 

 he did in connection with the agricultural experiment stations and 

 the nutrition investigations. To this work he brought a well-trained 

 mind and a true scientific purpose. He had the enthusiasm and per- 

 sistence necessary to impress other men with the im^^ortance of his 

 enterjjrises and to carry him successfully over periods of opposition 

 and discouragement. ' He had unusual ability in the conception and 

 formulation of broad lines of work, and in attracting and holding men 

 competent to give him such aid as he needed to complete these plans, 

 put them into successful operation, and secure substantial results. 



The observance by the Massachusetts Agricultural College of its 

 fortieth anniversary by means of a four-day conference on rural 

 progress was a novel and suggestive departure of considerable general 

 interest. AVhile, as may be seen by reference to the program as given 

 elsewhere in this issue, the historical and anniversary aspects of the 

 occasion received substantial recognition, the opportunity was utilized 

 in the main as a means of bringing together the varied forces making 

 for rural betterment — educational, social, and religious, as well as 

 those distinctively agricultural. The cooperation of existing organi- 

 zations such as the State Board of Agriculture, the State Grange, and 

 local associations of workers in schools, churches, and libraries was 

 invited, and the program was so arranged as to offer not only sessions 

 at which the special phases of immediate interest to each of these 

 bodies could be considered, but also an o]iportunity for all to come in 

 touch with questions of general significance. 



I 



