198 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



farmers actively present. As a result of these efforts 

 a bill endorsed by the committee of the Board of Agri- 

 culture had been presented to the Legislature. This 

 bill was retained in the legislative committee on agri- 

 culture until near the close of the session and then 

 reported with the recommendation that it be laid over 

 to the next session of the General Assembly. 



Mr. Orange Judd, editor of the American Agricul- 

 turist and a trustee of Wesleyan University, had 

 already addressed this meeting of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, speaking in favor of the experiment station 

 movement in one of its practical aspects, but appar- 

 ently with no understanding of the scientific features 

 involved. In the general discussion following the 

 report of the Board's committee on the experiment 

 station, he took a prominent part, finally proposing to 

 the meeting that an association be formed and funds 

 raised by private subscription for the immediate estab- 

 lishment of a station. The discussion closed without 

 formal action, and this proposal was not again brought 

 up in the public meetings, although it was privately 

 and persistently agitated. 



At a subsequent meeting of the committee of the 

 Board of Agriculture, it was decided to continue their 

 propaganda, but not attempt any other method of 

 raising funds. After this formal decision, Mr. Judd 

 took the matter into his own hands without any fur- 

 ther consultation with the committee. Professor John- 

 son was not in sympathy with Mr. Judd's project, and 

 when the measures advocated by the committee of the 

 Board, which he believed to be the best and only per- 

 manently useful ones, were defeated by agencies which 

 he had supposed pledged to the policies he repre- 



