202 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



granted five thousand dollars annually to the new insti- 

 tution, and identified him with its organization by the 

 wording of the eighth section of the act, which begins, 

 11 Professor Samuel W. Johnson of New Haven is 

 hereby empowered to appoint and call the first meeting 

 of the Board of Control. ' ' Immediately upon organi- 

 zation, on April 11, 1877, he was chosen director of the 

 station and eighth member of the Board. Three weeks 

 later the executive committee, consisting of Professor 

 Johnson, Professor Brewer and Mr. Webb, proceeded 

 to equip the station for actual work. Dr. E. H. Jen- 

 kins, the present director of the Connecticut Station, 

 and Dr. H. P. Armsby, formerly director of the Penn- 

 sylvania Station and now director of the Pennsylvania 

 Bureau of Animal Nutrition, both of whom had been 

 trained in agricultural chemistry by Professor John- 

 son, constituted at first the entire staff of the station, 

 which established on the basis of Professor John- 

 son's own previous work soon became the model 

 upon which other states patterned the experiment sta- 

 tions successively founded. It is surprising to see 

 how well the standards set in 1877 by the Connecticut 

 Station have been adhered to through the growth of 

 our experiment stations into a national system, em- 

 bracing the many varied agricultural interests not only 

 of the United States, but of our arctic and tropical 

 territories as well. Concerning the origin of these 

 standards, it may be noted that twelve years later, 

 when those interested in the development of experi- 

 ment stations began to inquire concerning the influ- 

 ences which had surrounded their inception and evo- 

 lution, Professor Johnson filed this memorandum 

 among his papers : 



