1 



Wilbur Olin Atwater. 

 1844-1907. 



Prof. Wilbur Olin Atwater, whose death occurred 

 September 22, 1907, at his home in Middletown, Conn., after 

 an illness of nearly three years, was the son of a Methodist 

 clergyman well known in New England, and was born in Johns- 

 burg, N. Y., May 3, 1844. 



He received his academic training at the University of Ver- 

 mont and at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., gradu- 

 ating from the latter institution in 1865. During a period of 

 postgraduate study at Yale University, which led to the doctor's 

 degree in 1869, he was associated with Professors S. W. John- 

 son and W. H. Brewer and had his attention called to agri- 

 cultural chemistry and the great possibilities this subject offered 

 to investigators. With an insight which characterized him 

 throughout his career, he recognized the future possibilities of 

 such work and from 1869 to 187 1 he studied agricultural and 

 physiological chemistry in the Universities of Berlin and Leipsic 

 and acquainted himself with the European agricultural experi- 

 ment station movement. His career as a college teacher began 

 immediately after his return from Europe at the University of 

 Tennessee and at the Maine State College, and he was thus 

 brought into close touch with the movement for agricultural 

 education and research which was at this time taking shape in 

 the United States. He was called to Wesleyan University in 

 1873, where he held a professorship of chemistry for over thirty 

 years and at his death was head of the chemical department in 

 that institution. 



The first agricultural experiment station in the United States 

 was organized in Connecticut in 1875 largely through Professor 

 Atwater's efforts, and he was made its first director. Interest 

 in the experiment station movement spread rapidly and the pas- 

 sage by Congress in 1887 of the Hatch act made possible the 

 establishment of such a station in every state and territory. In 



194 



