EDITORIAL. 3 



see a place made for him in New York, and there was correspondence 

 about positions elsewhere, but no opening presented itself on his 

 return and he was obliged to accept a teaching position at the new 

 Yale Scientific School, affording no direct agricultural connection. 

 He considered the plan of opening an agricultural school, and at one 

 time corresponded with Pugh with reference to associating him with 

 the project, as opportunities for developing agricultural work did 

 rot materialize. 



In 1855 the New York State Agricultural Society, largely through 

 Mr. Tucker, proposed to fit up a laboratory and invited him to become 

 its chemist. It was explained, however, that the office carried no 

 remuneration excepting the fees for agricultural analyses, etc., which 

 with writing for the press it was suggested " might yield a living 

 compensation." This society was probably the first to take such an 

 advanced step, but the outlook was not sufficiently encouraging and 

 Dr. Johnson temporarily rejected it. Later he made an effort 

 through the society to secure an endowment for an experiment sta- 

 tion in that State, but this failed of support, as did the movement 

 for an agricultural college in New York in which he hoped to have 

 a part. 



It is interesting to note in this connection that Liebig, under whom 

 Dr. Johnson had studied in Munich, strongly considered coming to 

 this country if he could receive suitable encouragement. A corre- 

 spondent wrote in 1856 : " He has almost made up his mind to go to 

 the United States and set up a model farm and agricultural school, 

 provided one of the States will furnish him with the lands and 

 funds." 



Meanwhile, although much occupied with his duties as instructor 

 in chemistry at Yale, Dr. Johnson found time for some agricultural 

 analysis and wrote a series of articles for an agricultural paper which 

 served to introduce him to the State Agricultural Society, and re- 

 sulted in his being appointed chemist to the society in 1856. This 

 gave him an affiliation and a constituency, but quite limited oppor- 

 tunity. It was not until twenty years later that he realized the 

 dream of his youth, and as the head of the sole American experiment 

 station Avas able to center his efforts on agricultural work. 



All through the writings of these earlier years we get glimpses of 

 a longing for the opportunity to give himself largely to agricultural 

 research. " It is a source of deep and continual regret," he writes, 

 that his efforts in the field of agriculture " have been mostly confined 

 to editing and communicating the results of the labors of others." 

 In the preface to his book on How Crops Grow, in 1870, he offered 

 an apology " for being a middleman and not a producer of the price- 

 less commodities of science," which position he attributed to lack of 

 opportunity. 



