STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 167 



increased as to falsify Mr. Crandell's prediction. 

 Still, appreciating that this newspaper correspond- 

 ence had developed into a unique opportunity for 

 missionary activitj^ and was of educational importance, 

 reaching as it did a national audience through the 

 Tribune columns. Professor Johnson kept on with it, 

 loth at heart to relinquish writing although he realized 

 that long-continued strain was telling on him. While 

 his mental industry was incessant, he was constitution- 

 ally incapable of turning off work hastily. Not only 

 must his knowledge of the point involved be exhaustive 

 and accurate, but each paragraph, even if of minor 

 importance, was rewritten many times before it was 

 parted with ; when finally sent off it was as clear as it 

 could well be made, representing the best he could do 

 ^\dth the subject, and bore little trace of the concen- 

 trated effort that left its mark on the author. 



Professor Johnson had set forth in his report on 

 commercial fertilizers, made to the Connecticut Board 

 of Agriculture in June 1870, the then existing condi- 

 tions of the applications of science to agriculture. His 

 opening sentence referred to his own first exposition 

 in this country of principles, worked out at the German 

 Versuch-Stationen, which he hoped would before long 

 be brought into practical use in American experiment 

 stations.* He then discussed the whole subject of the 

 analysis and valuation of fertilizers, referring for 

 methods and standards to his "Reports" made in 

 1857, and in 1858, to the Agricultural Society, and 

 describing the current practices of the German experi- 

 ment stations, of the English and Scotch agricultural 



* See page 107. 



