Most of the early Station scientists 

 held only bachelor degrees, but the 

 first bacteriologist, H. H. Lamson, was 

 an M.D.; the first entomologist, C. M. 

 Weed, a D.Sc; C. W. Burkett, agricul- 

 turist, was the first Ph.D.; and C. A. 

 Black, Ph.D., a botanist appointed in 

 1912, was the first woman scientist on 

 the staff. Two women had held posi- 

 tions on the staff since 1903, however; 

 E. M. Davis, purchasing agent, and M. 

 E. Townsend, stenographer. 



The research of the first Station 

 scientists, called Agriculturists, was 

 quite general. Early bulletins covered 

 titles such as Ensilage; Fertilizer and 

 Fertilizing Materials; Feeding Experi- 

 ments; Effect of Food on Milk; Preven- 

 tion of Potato Blight; the Flow of Maple 

 Sap; and the Tent Caterpillar, among 

 others. In the second report of the 

 Director of the Station (1890), there 

 was a section entitled "Use of Farm 

 Yard Manure" — a subject still under 

 investigation 97 years later. 



In 1895, C. S. Murkland was Presi- 

 dent of the College and Acting Direc- 



tor of the Experiment Station. A year 

 later, chemist F. W. Morse was named 

 Vice Director of the Station. The Col- 

 lege Farm consisted of some 300 acres 

 of valuable land provided partly from 

 funds given by Hon. John Conant and 

 partly from the Benjamin Thompson 

 estate. 



In the eighth annual Station re- 

 port (1896), F. W. Rane, head of the 

 Horticulture department, wrote that 

 exhibits of College crops were made at 

 fairs and that plates containing 56 

 varieties of tomatoes were sent to the 

 State Horticultural Society at Concord, 

 September 22-24. 



Interest in the work of the Station 

 heightened rapidly. By 1901, 11,000 

 copies of each bulletin were distrib- 

 uted, and technical bulletins began in 

 that year. The next year six press re- 

 leases, really abstracts of bulletins, 

 were sent to newspapers to ensure that 

 this information reached people 

 throughout the state. This resulted in a 

 flood of requests for the regular edi- 

 tions and probably was the early be- 



Making ensilage at Hanover, 1890 



