EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. X. No. 4. 



The following- statements regarding the labors of Dr. E. Lewis Stur- 

 tevant, one of the earlier agitators for experiment stations in this 

 country and an active student and investigator of agricultural prob- 

 lems, are furnished by Prof. G. S. Plumb, who was for several years 

 associated with him in his work at the New York State Experiment 

 Station. For years Dr. Sturtevant was a prominent figure in move- 

 ments for the benefit of agriculture, and devoted himself enthusiastic- 

 ally to the advancement of both the science and the art. During the 

 later years of his life, when prevented by failing health from active 

 participation in experiment station work, he continued his .studies and 

 investigations at his home and prepared for publication some of the 

 material which he had gathered in the form of notes during the busier 

 periods of his life. In this way the results of his extensive studies on 

 the varieties of corn were brought together and arranged for publica- 

 tion as a bulletin of this office, now in press. In this extensive mono- 

 graph the several hundreds of varieties have been described and 

 systematized, the classification followed being the one previously pub- 

 lished by Dr. Sturtevant. The synonymy has been much reduced, 

 clearing up the confusion of varietal names of corn and placing the 

 nomenclature on a sound scientific basis. 



The recent death of Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, on July 30 last, marks 

 the passing of one who has occupied a pioneer and important place in 

 the history of agricultural research in America. Born in Boston in 

 1842, educated in the best schools of the East, and receiving degrees 

 from Bowdoin College and the Harvard University Medical School, he 

 was equipped with a training that enabled him to be of great service 

 to his fellows. 



After serving for a time in the Civil War, during which he was pro- 

 moted to the captaincy of his company in the 2ith Regiment of Maine 

 Volunteers, sickness caused his retirement to civil life, and he took up 

 the study of medicine at Harvard, where he graduated in 1SGG. Being 

 of independent means, he returned to the home farm at South Framing- 

 ham, Massachusetts, some 25 miles west of Boston, where he began the 

 agricultural studies which continued during the rest of his life. Here, 

 on "Waushakum Farm," the joint property of his brother and himself, 

 he took up a study of dairying and the Ayrshire breed of cattle, bred 



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