EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XVI. October, 1904. No. 2. 



We are again called upon to pay tribute to the memory'of one of 

 the pioneers in agricultural education and experimentation in this 

 country, who was in many ways a leader in the early period of devel- 

 opment. The sudden and premature death of Maj. Henry E. Alvord 

 caused widespread and deep regret, and especially among the institu- 

 tions for agricultural education and research. First associated with 

 one of these institutions as military officer in charge of the instruction 

 in military tactics prescribed by the Morrill Act, he later gained dis- 

 tinction as a teacher in the more peaceful art of agriculture, and sub- 

 sequently as an executive officer had the direction of both instruction 

 and experimentation in agriculture. 



Major Alvord's career was a varied one. He was born at Greenfield, 

 Mass., March 11, 1811. Graduating from Norwich University, Ver- 

 mont, with the degrees of B. S. and C. E., he entered the Army as a 

 private in 1862, and before the close of the war had been advanced to 

 the rank of major of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. After the 

 war he remained in the Regular Army as captain of cavalry until 1872, 

 being assigned to service in the Southwest for quite a part of the 

 time. It was during this period, from 1809 to 1871, that he was 

 detailed as military instructor at the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege, being the first army officer detailed to an agricultural college for 

 this service. While there he became much interested in the study of 

 agriculture, and attended the various lecture courses on that subject 

 which were then given at the college. Subsequently his tastes attracted 

 him especially to dairying and the breeding of dairy cattle. 



During the eight years following his resignation from the Army, 

 while engaged as instructor in the scientific department of Williston 

 Seminary at Easthampton, Mass., he found time to pursue his work 

 in this new field, and by his writings and his public speaking gained 

 considerable reputation as an agricultural expert. It was during this 

 time that he wrote the American chapters of Sheldon's Dairy Farm- 

 ing. In the early days of the Chautauqua movement he was in charge 

 of the agricultural branch of its reading courses, known as its "School 

 of Farming." The three years' course of reading and examinations 



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