STATE EXPERIMENT STATION 207 



farmers of the Connecticut Valley. He then set about 

 an investigation of New England tobacco, which is 

 recorded in his " Report on Tobacco" made in May 

 1873, to the Connecticut Board of Agriculture ; it com- 

 prised analyses of the ash of the tobacco leaf of the 

 Connecticut Valley and a discussion of the require- 

 ments of the tobacco crop. In 1891, he directed the 

 energies of a part of the station force to a continua- 

 tion of this investigation, in the field and in the labora- 

 tory. The educational value of his initial work on 

 tobacco is indicated by the formation, in 1892, of the 

 Connecticut Tobacco Experiment Association, com- 

 prised of tobacco growers who formed a joint stock 

 company "for the purpose of conducting and carrying 

 on the business of an experiment in the culture and 

 cure of tobacco ... in connection with and under the 

 supervision of the Connecticut Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station." The association at once purchased a 

 suitable plot of tobacco land, and erected a barn to hold 

 the crop, and a scheme for five years ' experimentation 

 was adopted. Experimentation on tobacco has ever 

 since been regularly carried on by the Connecticut 

 Station under the personal supervision of Dr. Jenkins, 

 who, first as vice-director and then as director of the 

 station, has guided the expansion of this work until 

 it has become as essential to the tobacco industry as 

 is the station's fertilizer work in the operations of the 

 non-specializing farmer. 



When a good beginning had been made and Profes- 

 sor Johnson felt reasonably assured of a future for 

 the tobacco experiments, he turned his attention to 

 the establishment of a horticultural department. This 

 problem was worked out in his accustomed simple 



