YALE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL 81 



title, ''What is Science?" As soon as he was fairly 

 settled in Germany he began to send back across the 

 water accounts of the scientific agriculture of Saxony, 

 and also translations from the French of Ville and 

 the German of Wolff. 



In the ninth number of the Country Gentleman is 

 printed ''Superphosphate of Lime," dated from New 

 Haven, February 1853. In this article, which is re- 

 printed as an appendix to this volume, Mr. Johnson 

 discussed the value of certain commercial fertilizers as 

 shown by the results of his analyses of several sam- 

 ples procured in the open market and analyzed by him 

 solely to show the public utility of such work. The 

 controversy aroused by these analyses is described in 

 a letter from his father, October 1853 : 



I suppose you do not receive the Country Gentleman or 



Cultivator? If you do, you will see that ]\Ir. ]\I 's wrath 



is stirred against you by your analyses of his superphosphate 



of lime. He has got Prof. E to make an analysis to 



prove yours to be false. The editor of the Country Gentle- 

 man talked to Mr. M , (for disputing you, I suppose). 



Mr. ]\I continued to rake you over the coals until 



Professor Porter of Yale came out upon him and said he 

 knew that Mr. Johnson's analyses were correct. There has 

 been considerable ink shed on paper on the subject. ]\[r. 

 Tucker said Mr. Johnson was a modest young man, as worthy 

 of the title of Professor, and more so, than some who wear it. 

 I would like you should read what has been written since you 

 left dear "Amerika" about you. 



Mr. Tucker, at whose instance largely, the New 

 York State Agricultural Society had established a 

 laboratory for chemical analysis, came to the defense 

 of his absent correspondent, predicting as a result 



