54 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



increasing interest, using this mnemonic system to fix 

 dates in memory, and throughout life he found it of 

 service in remembering facts expressed in figures. 



Amid all the earning of daily bread and butter and 

 all the visits to Dr. Elliott's office, Youmans kept con- 

 stantly in mind the theme of agricultural chemistry. 

 Railroad development had not then made it easy to 

 forsake old land for new ; at Milton, as elsewhere 

 throughout the older settlements of the country, the 

 main question was how to get the most out of long- 

 tilled soil. His visits at home always brought this 

 problem sharply before him. His reading was discur- 

 sive, but his interest always came back to the science 

 which could ease his father's toil and increase the 

 small gains of his industry. In the spring of 1844 

 Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry was read to him. It 

 opened up a new world to his mind. During the 

 previous year his sister had been trying to fit herself 

 to give him aid by attending a course of chemical 

 lectures delivered by Prof. Mather in Fairfield, N. Y. 

 The knowledge thus acquired was to be brought to a 

 severe test. She was plied with questions regarding 

 obscure or ambiguous statements met in the text- 

 books. Edward would never pass a definition or 

 term he did not understand, and so there were perpet- 

 ual interruptions for consultation of dictionaries and 

 works of reference. He was full of comment and sug- 

 gestion as the reading went on, and when it was ended 

 he would sit quietly for hours absorbed in thought. 



Sometimes there were days — and rarely, perhaps, 

 a week or so — when he could see well enough to go 

 about and superintend work. He was eager to put 

 his scientific knowledge into effect, and such success 

 as attended experiments in drainage, fertilizing, or 



