252 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



like to know where to apply for the purchase of their pub- 

 lications. I have an impression that Scovell is the Sec, but 

 am not sure. Sincerely yours, F. H. Storer. 



Wasn't that Lord Rayleigh work on the residue from air- 

 nitrogen great f 



(S. W. J. TO F. H. S.) 



Sept. 30, 1894. 



—The Secy is Prof. Wm. Frear, State College, Pa. 



I have not yet read anything but newspaper accounts of 

 Rayleigh 's work. We need an allotropic nitrogen or oxidable 

 N-compound to connect chemistry with symbiosis ! and need it 

 badly, don't we? — 



(F. H. S. TO S. W. J.) 



476 Boylston St., Boston, 1 Nov. 1894. 



Dear Johnson, — You 're a trump ! I want you to accept my 

 very best thanks — many and multifarious — for the "notice" 

 in this month's number of the Journal. Never was publication 

 more timely, for our publishers were in the very act of fretting 

 under the jibes of the agents of rival publications, and were 

 allowing themselves to lend an all too willing ear to such 

 agents ' assertions that the book is ' ' too big for daily use, ' * 



I have been protesting right along (and a hard fight I have 

 had of it) agaiast the "trade" feeling that a text-book must 

 be pared down to lowest terms, and have insisted that this 

 country is now ripe enough to permit a reputable house to 

 give over the peddling of white oak cheese and nothing else. 



Last week I read for the first time what Hilgard said, in 

 1882, at a time when I was much more dead than alive — about 

 my (and your!) view of salt and lime in composts!! He 

 handled his theme well. I acknowledge full satisfaction. 

 Only I wish I had known of his explanation before reviewing 

 my "Agric." 



