USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 63
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knowledge of museum methods, and of systematic entomology, that was of great importance to his future work. The undetermined species in the Cornell collection at this time were taken to Cambridge and classified by comparison with the collections there, and in the mu- seum of the Boston Society of Natural History.
In the fall term of the following year (October, 1872,) a course of twelve lectures on economic entomology was given by Mr. C. V. Riley, then State Entomologist of Missouri; and in the spring term of the same college year (May 2, 1873,) provision was made for continuons instruction in this subject, by the appointment of Mr. Comstock as in- structor in entomology. A separate entomological laboratory was at once established in one of the upper rooms of the tower of McGraw Hall, the room adjoining the upper gallery of the museum; and thus a modest beginning of a distinct department of entomology was made.
Within a month after the establishment of the department, it re- ceived from Mr. H. H. Smith the gift of his collection of insects, a collection which represented about two years of field work on the part of this unrivalled collector. The specimens were mostly unclassified. But they were immediately placed in the hands of specialists for deter- mination, and soon became available for the use of the department. The collection was especially rich in hymenoptera and diptera; and as the former were determined by Mr. E. Cresson, and the latter by Baron Osten-Sacken, they became exceedingly valuable.
The growth of the department for a considerable period was neces- sarily slow. The instructor, being still an undergraduate student, could give only a part of his time to it, and the funds at the disposal of the department did not admit of the purchase of any specimens, and of but few books. But so hearty was the sympathy and encouragement extended to the young instructor by President White, Professor Wilder, and other members of the faculty, that the lack of time, of specimens, and of books, was hardly considered. Another source of great en- couragement in those days of small beginnings was the attitude of the students. If any of them appreciated the crudeness of the facilities offered, they did not express it by word or look, but each did his part to -
make the work as successful as possible.
In the summer of 1875 plans were made for an extension of the de- partment of entomology by transferring to it the work in invertebrate zoology. In anticipation of this change, a leave of absence was granted to instructor Comstock, in order that he might spend a part of the fol-
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lowing year in study with Professor Verill at Yale College. This he did, returning in time to give his lectures on entomology in the spring term.
The proposed extension of the department was made in the fall of 1876 by the promotion of Instructor Comstock to the rank of assistant professor, with the title assistant professor of entomology and inverte- brate zoology.
The wording of this title indicates the direction in which it was determined that the growth of the department should proceed. Although instruction was to be offered in the general subject of invertebrate zoology, the department was to remain essentially entomological. This was in accordance with the plan of organization of the university, by which subjects relating to agriculture were to receive especial attention.
In carrying out this plan, however, the constant aim of the instructor has been to give the students thorough training in the science of ento- mology. It has seemed wiser to enable the students to lay a broad foundation for their entomological studies by giving them a thorough knowledge of the structure and development of insects injurious to agriculture. At the same time, great pains have been taken to present in lectures and field work the applications of the science. This has been largely accomplished by selecting, for purposes of illustration, those species that are of economic importance.
In addition to the desire to strengthen the work of the College of Agriculture there has been another important factor in determining the direction of the growth of the department of entomology. Owing to the difficulty of studying marine animals at any place remote from a sea coast, and to the exceptionally good facilities for the study of insects at this university, it has been felt that the best interests of science would be subserved by concentrating our advanced work on insects, and frankly advising those students that wish to make a special study of marine forms to go to some university situated near the sea. It has seemed better to lead in one specialty than to hold a mediocre place in the whole field. An opportunity is offered the student to lay a broad foundation for zoological studies by lectures covering in a general way the field of invertebrate zoology, and by a study in the laboratory of a wide series of typical forms, illustrating the more important groups of invertebrates. These two courses, taken in connection with similar courses offered by the Department of Physiology and Vertebrate Zoology afford the instruction needed in zoology by students in the
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general courses, and serve as an introduction to the more advanced work of those who wish to make a special study of zoology. Such students can then continue their study of insects or of vertebrates at this university or can take up the special study of marine forms at some of the seaside laboratories.
The summer of 1878 Assistant Professor Comstock spent in the Southern States, as a special agent of the. U. S. Department of Agri- culture, making a study of the insects injurious to cotton. The results of thesc studies formed the basis of an exhaustive report published by the government in 1880.
In the spring of 1879 Mr. Comstock was called to the position of entomologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Appreciating the value of the experience to be gaincd in this position, and at the same time being unwilling to sever permanently his connection with Cornell University, he requested and obtained a leave of absence from the university for two years.
During his absence the work of this department was carried on by Assistant Professor William Stebbins Barnard. Dr. Barnard was a graduate of Cornell of the class of 1871 and had taken the degree of Ph. D. at Jena in 1873. He had served as lecturer on Protozoa at the Anderson school at Penikeese in 1874, and had resigned the position of professor of natural science at Oskaloosa College, in order to accept the position at Cornell.
During Dr. Barnard's administration of the department he made important contributions to our knowledge of the habits of certain insects. The most notable of these was his account of the habits of the pear psylla, which was published in the proceedings of the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Science for 1879. In this paper he pointed out the serious nature of this pest, which ten years later destroyed many of the pear orchards of this State, and was the subject of an exhaustive investigation, conducted by this department in 1891 and 1892.
Immediately after the return of Mr. Comstock, at the expiration of his leave of absence in 1881, the laboratory was moved from its limited quarters in McGraw Hall to its present home in White Hall.
During the year 1881-2, much time was given to the completion of certain investigations begun in Washington but still incomplete. Financial aid was furnished by the government, including the salary of an assistant, Mr. Henry Ward Turner. The results of these investiga-
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tions were published, partly in the Annual Report of the U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture for 1881, and partly by the university in the Second Report of the Cornell University Experiment Station (1883).
At the close of the year 1881-2, Mr. Comstock's connection with the government work ceased; and early in the following year he was pro- moted to a full professorship. This promotion placed the Department of Entomology on a footing co-ordinate with the other departments of the university.
On the completion, at the closc of the preceding year, of the investi- gations for the U. S. Government, Professor Comstock began a task which he had long had in mind, the preparation of a text book of ento- mology. The need of a suitable text-book had greatly hampered the work of instruction; and it seemed clear that the most important thing to be done for the advancement of the department was the preparation of such a work. As American entomology is still in its infancy, it is impossible to compile a satisfactory text book; its preparation must necessarily be to a great extent original work, based on the study of specimens.
Although the entomological collection had become of considerable size, it was still inadequate for the purpose. Fortunately the financial condition of the university at this time was such that appropriations could be made for the purchase of specimens; and there began a sys- tematic filling up of the more important gaps in the collection, which has been continued to the present time; so that now, with the excep- tion of the great collections of insects at Cambridge, Philadelphia and Washington, ours is one of the most important in the United States.
At the same time that the increase of the entomological collection by purchase began, important additions were made to the illustrative material in other departments of invertebrate zoology. Among these additions was a complete set of the glass models of invertebrates made by Blaschka.
During the growth of the entomological collections, much thought has been given to the methods of arranging and displaying specimens in the museum. This has resulted in the development of a new method of arranging them, which is known as the block system. This method allows the rearrangement of a collection with great facility, and the interpolation of new material at any desired point.
The rapid growth of the collection rendered necessary the employ- ment of help in the laboratory, and in the fall of 1883 Mr. J. M. Sted-
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man was appointed laboratory assistant. In 1888 Mr. Stedman was succeeded by Mr. A. D. McGillivray, who still holds this position.
On April 30, 1888, the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station was established under the provisions of a national law known as the Hatch Act. At the organization of this station it was decided to give considerable attention to entomological investigations, and there resulted in consequence a considerable enlargement of the scope of the work of the entomological department of the university.
In order that the new duties of the department might be carried on with the greatest facility, a building especially designed for the pur- pose of experimental entomology was planned and erected. This build- ing, the first of its kind, was named the Insectary, and has served as a model for similar buildings at several of the experiment stations in other States, and at the Department of Agriculture in Washington.
The new duties connected with the establishment of the experi- mental work at the Insectary necessitated an interruption in the prep- aration of the text book of entomology, upon which Professor Com- stock had been engaged for six years. This work was about one-half written, and as its completion seemed indefinitely postponed by these new duties, that part which was ready for the printer was published under the title, An Introduction to Entomology, Part First.
The more striking features of this text book are the use of analytical keys, similar to those used in botany, by which a student can readily determine to what family any insect of which he has a specimen be- longs, and a large number of original wood engravings of insects, en- graved by Mrs. Comstock.
Work on the concluding part of this text book was not entirely suspended, but for about three years, the greater part of the time that could be devoted to research was absorbed by the new duties at the Insectary. At the end of this period, the assistant entomologist, Mr. M. V. Slingerland, had acquired so much skill in investigations in ap- plied entomology, that it was no longer necessary for Professor Com- stock to do more than to exercise a general supervision of the work at the Insectary, and he was able to devote the greater part of his time, not required for teaching, to work on the text book.
The carrying out of the plan upon which the Introduction to Ento- mology is based has proved a much greater undertaking than was expected. And as the need of a completed text book is very pressing, work on the Introduction to Entomology was suspended in the spring
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of 1891, and a more clementary work, entitled First Lessons in the Study of Insects, has been prepared. This is now in press and as soon as it is published, work on the Introduction to Entomology will be re- sumed.
The present is a period of great activity and rapid growth in this department. The laboratory is well filled with students, many of whom arc graduate students condueting original investigations. Pro- fessor Comstock has just finished a revision of the order lepidoptera on the lines indicated in his essay on Evolution and Taxonomy, published in the Wilder Quarter-Century Book. Mr. McGillivray is publishing a series of papers on the elassifieation of the thysanura, and Mr. Slinger- land is publishing results of the highest practical importance in the bulletins of the experiment station.
THE TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS.
XVI.
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
The demand for scientifie edueation in agriculture was the ocasion of the establishment of these national sehools of seienee. The vast wealth of this country is founded upon agriculture and the products of the soil. With the rise of great cities, the need of the more skillful culture of the land in their vicinity was felt. The development of horti- culture, and seientific market gardening became essential for the supply of the needs of the great eenters of manufacturing and commercial life. A second need, which was more widely felt throughout the Eastern and Central Middle States, was the deeline in the value of farm lands and produets, caused by the gradual removal of large numbers of the farm- ing population to the broad and fertile prairies of the West, where land was eheap and abundant harvests were obtained with less labor. Un- scientific farming had been the rule throughout the carly history of the country. Thrift, energy and industry always existed, but as there was no science of chemistry, and botany was but an empirical rec- reation, the seientific cultivation of the soil was impossible. To re- store prosperity to the great agricultural domains of the East, which
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had supported for two hundred years the population of the State, and to repair the need which the soil, once fertile, could no longer supply, to attract and retain the citizens of the East in their old homes and thus prevent the transfer of agricultural prosperity from its center to the West, was the subject of earnest thought of many of the wisest men of the time.
Such considerations as these had profoundly impressed the author of the National Land Grant Act. Prosperity was dependent not merely upon industry but upon intelligent industry, and for thirty years the demand for agricultural education found expression in the discussions in village lyceums, in conferences of farmers, in resolutions and mem- orials of agricultural societies, and in reports of legislative committees. The Legislature of Illinois as early as 1854 passed resolutions calling upon Congress to establish an Industrial University. One of the earliest duties of the governing board of this university was to make provision to fulfill the obligations of the National Land Grant. Con- ferences were held with the leading educators of the State and with the officers of the State Agricultural Society. One of the two professors first chosen was a professor of agricultural chemistry, but no professor of scientific and practical agriculture was appointed. There was a farm consisting of the land presented by Mr. Cornell, not reserved for a campus, upon which stood a small farm house, situated near the eastern extension of Sibley College, and several blackened barns. At ths meeting of the trustees of February 13, 1868, Joseph Harris, a gentleman widely known as the editor of a popular agricultural paper, who had some personal acquaintance with foreign agriculture, was appointed to the professorship of agriculture. He never entered, however, upon the duties of his position. Soon after the opening of the second term on February 18, 1869, Lewis Spaulding was appointed assistant-professor of agriculture and farm director. It was evident, that the entire organization of this department was inchoate, and the first specific instruction was elementary in character, and confined to the observation of farm work. Two prominent agriculturists were early appointed as lecturers in the university, Mr. John Stanton Gould, on June 30, 1869, who had been president of the State Agricultural Society and was actively interested in promoting the agricultural welfare of the State. This noble Friend was a man of great practical wisdom, and of large influence in the denomination with which he was connected, whose life had been devoted to the amelioration of the con-
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dition of the suffering and criminal classes in the community. He delivered for several ycars two courses of leeturcs, one upon general agriculture and another upon mechanics as applied to agriculture. All who knew this man, so grand in every quality of his being, will rejoice in the memory of his association in those early years. Governor Frederick Holbrook, of Vermont, had been appointed a lecturer on one portion of the field covered by Mr. Gould, that of mechanics as applied to agriculture, but had never performed any dutics. The trustees at this timc interpreted the law of Congress as requiring all students in the university to receive certain instruction in agriculture. It was cven provided that no students should receive a diploma, who had not attended lectures upon general agriculture. This compulsory baptism of unwilling literary recipients with agricultural knowledge, afforded a subject of humorous and earnest protest during those early years. The law imposed no obligation that agriculture should be a part of the course of instruction of all students in these national schools, but only that provision should be made for instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. Both Mr. Cornell and President White were dis-
appointed at the failure of their efforts to secure an able scientist and teacher as professor of agriculture, during the first three years of the history of the university. The department had been equipped with professorships of agricultural chemistry, of veterinary medicine and surgery, of botany, horticulture and arboriculture. Three courses of study were, however, arranged, a thorough and systematic course of four years leading to the degree of bachelor of science, and two abridged courses, one of three and the other of two years comprising most of the instruction immediately relating to agriculture. These courses were designed to meet the need of students who were unable to complete a full course of study, and who desired to avail themselves of a certain amount of agricultural knowledge before returning to their profession as farmers. The requisites for admission to these courses were low, as they were to all courses in the university. For admission to the freshman class in the full course, a good sound English education, including algebra to quadratics was required; but for admission to the abridged, courses an examination in elementary English was alone demanded. Facility was offered to special students to follow certain lines of work in the laboratories and gardens under the direction of the respective professors. On February 10, 1870, the Honorable George Geddes was elected professor of agriculture. Hc, too, had been promi-
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nent in the promotion of the agricultural interests in the State, but did not accept the position. There were, however, in various colleges scientific professors of agriculture, who had won distinction for their success in developing instruction in this field, but who were not avail- able. Those who had been nominated here were men rather of general interest in agriculture, than of special scientific attainments.
Mr. Louis Spaulding remained in connection with the agricultural department but one year. At the end of that time a practical farmer was made director of the university farm, and the professorship of agriculture remained vacant for a year, when, on June 28, 1871, Henry H. McCandless was appointed professor of agriculture. Mr. McCandless had been connected with an agricultural school at Glasnevin in Ireland. Mr. McCandless had directed the farm, or been foreman or super- intendent of some portion of the agricultural interests of that institution, but was unfamiliar with the demands of American agriculture. During his period of service the south barn was erected, whose architecture has been the subject of amusing comment ever since. In 1873, Professor Isaac P. Roberts of the Iowa Agricultural College was appointed assistant-professor of agriculture. From this time, the proper devel- opment of the department and the scientific direction of the farm date. The farm was no longer cultivated simply for the production of crops, but to test certain important principles. Soon after his appointment an appropriation of one thousand dollars was made to fit up the agri- cultural museum. Certain illustrative material had previously been ordered by President White, among them the Rau models, a series of one hundred and eighty-seven models of plows illustrating the history, development and varied use of the plow in different ages, also a collec- tion of cereal grains, a duplicate of the royal collection in Edinburgh which had been presented by the British government.
The subjects for which provision was made in the early history of the department were, first, the chemistry of agriculture, including the constituents and chemical agencies of the atmosphere and water, and the composition of manures.
The lectures and exercises now embraced in this course comprise the following subjects: 1. The chemistry of agriculture, including the constituents and chemical agencies of the atmosphere and of water, and the composition of manures. 2. The geology of agriculture, in- cluding the formation of soils, their chemical, physical, and economic character; their suitability to different kinds of crops, and the princi-
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pal geological features of the various portions of the United States as affecting the soils and productions. 3. The physics of agriculture, in- cluding meteorology, or the laws of climate, and of light and heat, as influencing plant life. 4. The mechanics of agriculture, and their ap- plication to the various descriptions of implements and labor required on the farm. 5. The botany of agriculture, including structural bot- any, vegetable physiology, vegetable pathology, and a knowledge of crops cultivated for food and for technical purposes. 6. The zoology of agriculture, including the habits, diseases and treatment of live stock; the anatomy of the horse, the cow, the sheep, and other farm animals, and all branches of veterinary surgery and medicine, as well as a special consideration of insects injurious to vegetation. 7. The economics of agriculture, including the sequence of agricultural opera- tions, the economical division of labor, rearing, feeding and handling of domestic animals, the rotation of crops, the improvement of the soil by manuring, draining and liming, farm engineering and construc- tion, general agricultural policy, and the management of landed prop- erty.
The graduates from the department of agriculture have taken a prominent part in like work in other institutions, notably the following :
Wm. Arnon Henry, professor of agriculture in the University of Wisconsin, and director of the agricultural experiment station.
Wm. R. Lazenby, professor of horticulture in the Ohio State Uni- versity.
Joseph A. Holmes, State Geologist of North Carolina.
Fred. L. Kilborne, director of the experiment stations for animal diseases in the United States department of agriculture.
Clinton De Witt Smith, professor of agriculture in the Michigan Agricultural College.
Geo. C. Watson, assistant agriculturist in the Cornell University agricultural experiment station.
Thos. L. Brunk, late professor of horticulture in the Maryland Agri- cultural College.
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