STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 121 



reputation as a lecturer. These lectures embodied the 

 results of his studies and teaching, and covered in a 

 general way the state of knowledge at that time of 

 agricultural chemistry. Personally a quiet, reserved 

 man, whose indifference to outside matters was often 

 mistaken for shyness, once on the platform he com- 

 pletely lost himself in his subject, and made it alive 

 and fascinating. Always carefully prepared to speak, 

 he seldom wrote out anything for publication until 

 after it had been delivered, so his verbal presenta- 

 tion had the freshness and charm of an apparently 

 impromptu wording. These lectures, revised and pub- 

 lished, served the author as groundwork for the more 

 important treatise, * * How Crops Grow, ' ' with which he 

 was already occupied, although it was not ready for 

 publication until nearly ten years later. 



His "Second Annual Report as Chemist to the Con- 

 necticut Agricultural Society" presents an account of 

 a thorough investigation of peat and muck more 

 time-consuming than would seem possible save to one 

 familiar with research work. The fertilizer analyses 

 for the year proved in a gratifying manner the good 

 effects produced by the exposures of frauds, made 

 two years before, and bore out the contention that 

 publicity given to results of regularly made analyses 

 would keep up the standards of manufactured articles. 

 With the report he sent this letter to the secretary of 

 the society : 



Dear Sir, My second Annual Report is chiefly occupied 

 with the results of the Investigation of Peat and Muck, begun 

 at your instance in 1857. In order to make ray analyses and 

 inquiries of the greatest practical benefit to our farmers, I 

 have prepared a systematic and brief, though pretty com- 



