To the Board of Control of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station: 



Gentlemen. It gives me pecioliar pleasure to transmit to you for 

 publication a manuscript prepared from notes by Dr. E. Lewis Sturte- 

 vant, the distinguished first Director of this Station, the publication to 

 be known as " Stiortevant's Notes on Edible Plants." 



Dr. Sturtevant was one of that group of men who early espoused the 

 cause of agricultural science in the United States, a field in which he 

 became distinguished, his studies in economic botany being one of his 

 notable achievements. When he retired in 1887 as Director of this 

 Station, he left behind him a voluminous manuscript consisting of a com- 

 pilation of existing knowledge on the edible food plants of the world, a 

 piece of work involving a laborious and extended research in botanical 

 literature. F.or twenty years this manuscript remained untouched, when 

 Dr. U. P. Hedrick undertook its editing, a difficult and arduous task, well 

 performed, in order that so valuable a collection of knowledge might 

 become available to botanists and to students of food economics. 



It is especially appropriate that such a volume should be issued at this 

 time. Food problems are becoming more and more acute as the demand 

 for food increasingly overshadows the supply. Primitive peoples depended 

 upon food resources which are now neglected. Other sources of possible 

 human nutrition have doubtless remained untouched, and the time may 

 come when a comprehensive utilization of food plants will be essential to 

 human sustenance. It is believed, therefore, that the information so ably 

 brought together by Dr. Sturtevant cannot fail to become increasingly 

 useful. 



Very respectfully, 



W. H. JORDAN 

 New York Agricultural Director 



Experiment Station 

 Geneva, N. Y. 



June I, 1919. 



