STATE EXPERIMENT STATION 213 



Immediately upon Professor Johnson's appoint- 

 ment as director, came a pleasant note from his old 

 pupil and assistant, Dr. Jenkins: 



Middletown, Conn., April 12, 1877. 



My dear Professor: I congratulate you, and the farmers 

 of the State and myself too, that the Station has passed into 

 your immediate control, where I have felt that it rightfully 

 belonged from the first. I hope you will find its management 

 a pleasure and not too great a burden. If the Board of Con- 

 trol and yourself conclude to ask me to assist in carrying out 

 the work of the Station, please reckon on my heartiest interest 

 and cooperation with all your plans. . . . Very sincerely 

 yours, E. H. Jenkins. 



The modest equipment of the new institution and 

 the helpful attitude of its friends appear in this 

 note, written October 6, 1877, by Professor Johnson 

 to a staunch supporter of the Station, who was also a 

 dealer in horticultural supplies: 



Would you kindly permit Mr. Jenkins to use a straw or 

 stalk cutter in your store to reduce to short bits some samples 

 of corn-fodder sent me by T. S. Gold, Sec'y-B'd of Ag., for 

 analysis? Having on a former occasion been favored in this 

 way, I am encouraged to ask again ! 



The letters of Professor Johnson which follow 

 with the exception of those written to Professor Storer, 

 Dr. Jenkins, Dr. Britton and to the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture are taken from copy-books of the Con- 

 necticut Station. They are in Professor Johnson's 

 own handwriting and are of interest either through 

 their contents or because of the time at which they 

 were written. They require little or no comment: 



