THE GENESEE FARMER. 



305 



/fauyfaj JrfLflZrus 



There are few men to whom Agriculture in 

 England or America is more indebted, than to the 

 late Professor of Chemistry in the University of 

 Durham, Scotland, James F. W. Johnston. 



He was born at Paisley, about the year 1796 

 Like many other men who have risen to scientific 

 eminence, young Johnston was mainly dependent 

 on his own efforts for his education. He made 

 rapid progress, and was in a few years able to give 

 private instruction to pupils in the University of 

 Glasgow. The money thus obtained enabled him 

 to prosecute his own studies with increased facility. 

 In 1825 he opened a school at Durham. In 1830 

 he married a lady of some property, and his 

 circumstances being thus improved he deter- 

 mined to give up his school, and carry out a 

 plan he had long conceived of devoting himself to 

 the study of chemistry. He repaired to Sweden 

 and became a pupil of the celebrated Berzelius. 

 On his return he was appointed Chemist to the 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland and Professor of 

 Chemistry and Mineralogy in the University of 

 Durham. 



He now devoted himself to the preparation of 

 works on the relation of chemistry to agriculture. 

 He published a " Catechism ou Chemistry and 

 Geology, 1 ' which has been translated into almost 



every European language, and has gone through 

 thirty-three editions. It has had a large sale in 

 this country. His "Lectures on Agricultural 

 Chemistry and Geology," delivered before the 

 Durham County Agricultural Society, were pub . 

 lished in 1844, and added greatly to his popularity. 

 It went through several editions. It was reprinted 

 in this country, and is one of the most useful and 

 popular works we have on the subject. 



In 1849, at the invitation of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society, Prof. Johnston visited this 

 country. At the N. Y. State Fair of that year, 

 held at Syracuse, he delivered an address on Eu- 

 ropean Agriculture. In January, 1850, he delivered 

 before the members of the Society and the Legisla- j 

 ture, at Albany, a series of lectures on Agricultural 

 Chemistry, which were afterwards published. He ! 

 also lectured at Boston and New York, and made ' 

 an agricultural survey of the province of New 

 Brunswick. 



As the result of his visit to this country, shortly' 

 after his return appeared two volumes of " Notes 

 on North America," in which he said some things; 

 which were not at all complimentary, but which' 

 did us no harm. 



His last work, and the most popular one, was 

 " Chemistry of Common Life," which originally 



