134 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



It was another pleasure to be assured that you were ready 

 to equip the new Laboratory with a number of costly instru- 

 ments, and with such a collection of chemical preparations 

 as would enable it to vie in all respects with other similar 

 institutions in this country. 



And now your crowning act of munificence places me in the 

 position to devote nearly my whole energies to the noble 

 science with which in boyhood I resolved to link my fortunes. 



Be assured, Dear Sir, that my gratitude, though rather of 

 the silent order verbally, will constantly seek to express itself 

 in faithful labors for the success of the Institution which I 

 hope may shortly bear the name of its honored Patron. 



With the highest regard, 



Yours truly, Samuel W. Johnson. 



The Connecticut State Agricultural Society held a 

 meeting in January 1861, but its activities soon 

 ceased and were not resumed until after the close of 

 the war. Arrangements were made for a second 

 course of agricultural lectures connected with the 

 Scientific School, to be given in February. Rapidly 

 increasing apprehension of war caused these also to 

 be abruptly abandoned, and, in response to the wish 

 of those who had expected to attend them, the regular 

 course on Scientific Agriculture, given in the school 

 by Professor Johnson, was opened to the public. 

 These lectures were designed to cover the whole 

 ground of the relations of science to agriculture. 



In the summer of 1861, Professor Johnson under- 

 took a series of observations on the nutrition of plants, 

 the results of which were published in 1866. Reference 

 is made to this investigation in a letter written some- 

 what later by Dr. Pugh : 



