92 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



Professor Brush, on August 17, expressed his 

 pleasure at Mr. Johnson's appointment: 



Your note of the 4th was reed, a few days since. I am glad 

 to hear that you are so pleased with the idea of going to 

 Yale. . . . Things will go on swimmingly when you take com- 

 mand of the old Lab. . . . You will have hard work, but I 

 am sure you will enjoy it. Don't injure your health by over- 

 work. When we all get back and start our team in good 

 earnest I think we'll be able to do "some pumpkins," if not 

 more. Liebig is rejoiced to hear that you have an appoint- 

 ment, Rood says he was so tickled that he came all the way 

 in the Labt. on purpose to tell him of it. . . . But you, my 

 dear boy, will, I hope, be so situated that you'll have plenty 

 of time for pure science. You have a splendid field before 

 you. Scientific Agriculture is your Liebling, and you are 

 bound to stand No. 1 in your profession. . . . 



In August 1855, Mr. Johnson returned to America 

 and to the Yale Scientific School. He superintended 

 the laboratory, gave instruction, collected fees, paid 

 the expenses, and, when needful, tended stoves, washed 

 apparatus and swept up the floor. On October 11, he 

 wrote to his mother: 



I should have written before, but I am unaccountably busy. 

 The Laboratory has been in a sadly run-down condition and 

 I have hardly got it to rights again as yet. News I have 

 none. ... I am well and happy, i.e. busy. 



On November 18, he expressed his disapproval of 

 the conditions under which he had taken charge of 

 the laboratory in a letter to Professor Brush. The 

 letter is not in existence, but the tenor of his remarks 

 may be inferred from comments in the reply: 



