CONVENTION OF ASSOCIATION OF OFFICIAL AGRICULTURAL 



CHEMISTS, 1901. 



D. W. May, 



Office of Experiment Stations. 



The eighteenth annual convention of the Association of Official Agri- 

 cultural Chemists met in the lecture hall of the Columbian University, 

 Washington, D. C, November 14, 15, and 16, 1901. The meetings 

 were presided over b}^ the president, L. L. Van Slyke. 



In his address the president reviewed the causes which led to the 

 creation of the association and the lines along which it has advanced. 

 The expansion of the work has been very large, not only in amount 

 but in character. Personal initiative has been the prime factor in 

 advancement. From the consideration of methods of analj'sis the 

 work has grown more into lines of original investigation. Something 

 must be done toward identif ving the individual compounds, he declared, 

 before effective methods can be provided for their estimation. He 

 believed that the association should encourage research in all lines, 

 with the stud}^ of methods as a secondary consideration. He called 

 attention to the need of a much broader preparation for work by agri- 

 cultural chemists. An anal3^st, simply, is not fitted for research work. 

 We are being drawn more into the untried fields of life chemistry, and 

 must take up the solution of questions that partake more of the char- 

 acter of advanced science. The time of the association, he believed, 

 should be taken up more with the discussion of lines of investigation 

 and less with methods of analysis. The special investigations of differ- 

 ent stations should be subjects for consideration before the association. 

 More concise reports by the referees on methods of analysis were con- 

 sidered advisable, and he counseled care in selecting referees for this 

 work. Reference was made to the death of Dr. John A. M3^ers. a 

 former president of the association, and the suggestion made that an 

 evening session be held to consider his life work and to adopt suitable 

 resolutions. 



In accordance with this suggestion the association met at the Cosmos 

 Club the evening of the first day, and adopted resolutions in recogni- 

 tion of Dr. Mvers's services and the esteem in which he was held in 

 the Association. 

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