200 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



its policy. Quite naturally, therefore, when Mr. Judd 

 introduced and carried to a successful issue his plan 

 for an experiment station entirely different in scope 

 from the institution contemplated by the "Farmers' 

 committee" of the Board of Agriculture, surprise and 

 disappointment ensued. 



Under the legislative resolution this experiment sta- 

 tion was exclusively controlled by the trustees of Wes- 

 leyan University. An impression, founded upon Mr. 

 Judd's utterances and personal attitude, was wide- 

 spread "that the purpose of this station was for the 

 analysis of commercial fertilizers alone," and to that 

 possible limitation was added the probability that the 

 new institution might become committed to a short- 

 sighted and mistaken policy, voiced by resolutions 

 passed in a farmers' club, which stated substantially 

 that they would patronize no manufacturer or dealer 

 who was not willing to put his wares under the control 

 of such an institution. 



Professor Johnson had very clearly defined ideas, 

 based on his own long experience in such work, as to 

 the proper limitations and methods of exercising 

 a "fertilizer control." He believed that it was not 

 expedient "for the station to attempt any formal and 

 systematic inspection of manufactories or store-houses 

 of fertilizers with the idea that such inspection can in 

 any sense be made a guarantee of the genuineness and 

 good quality of whatever is sent out therefrom. It is 

 held that the liability of any brand of fertilizer, if 

 exposed for sale anywhere in the state, to be subjected 

 to the scrutiny of the station, at the hands of con- 

 sumers and in the very condition in which it is offered 

 to them, will be the most easy, the most healthy and in 



