Cornell University - Cornellian Yearbook (Ithaca, NY)

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Dean Bailey P53 339,58 iw GRICULTURE must rescue the city. Our country was made possible by the pioneer of the Woods and the fields. Our Con- WTJ stitution was framed by men of the country, and the impetus to QE' Scam our national development was given by the out-ofidoors. Rural il v ff statesmen once held and wisely guided the nationls destimes. But all that has changed. A centralizing urban life has occupied l I our attention and absorbed our energies. Great movements ' 'III' now originate and strong leaders now rise in the cities, carrying with them the urban point of view. 'Weakened is the land that loses the strength of the acres. For a decade past the attention of leading men has been slowly turning to the regenerating vigor of rural surroundings. The city has been slowly devising schemes through which the country may share its burdens. But hitherto these efforts lacked unity. Teaching and prac- tice in agriculture were much at variance. The practical failed of recognition' from the educated leaders. The purely scientific found no chord of sympathy With the prac- tical Workaday life in the field. It remained for a leader to rise to champion the cause of country life affairs. He must be a scholar and a practical Worker if public sentiment on all sides was to be crystallized. A great educational struggle in New York State, country-wide in its inHuence, developed the man for the movement. VVhen the conflict was passed We saw him Who Was needed, who is giving a life Work to establish a great educational system, Liberty Hyde Bailey. lt was fitting that the Dean of our State College of Agriculture should have been born on the farm. Michigan gave him his birthplace in South Haven, March 15th, I86O. The twenty-second year of his life found him at the completion of his course in the Michigan Agricultural College. A splendid opportunity for experience in Botany was offered under Asa Gray at Harvard University. Upon the completion of his Work there he returned to his alma mater as Professor of Horticulture and Land- scape Gardening. In 1886, the State of Minnesota claimed his services as a member of the Geological and Natural History Survey for that part of the country. In 1888 Cornell called him to the chair of Horticulture. Several trips abroad previous served to give him the breadth of vievv necessary to cope with the big problems later encoun- tered. IQO3 marks the time when the directorship of the College of Agriculture was passed into his hands. Quickly and always progressively the administration of the college has been promoted and developed under his inspiring inliuence. New de- partments have been added and new men have felt the call of his work. 9

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Still not as the Dean of a College among the sisterhood of colleges on the hill have his energies been confined, but as President of the Association ofAmerican Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, his influence has been felt throughout the Union. Yet agriculture alone has not received the full attention of our Dean. The organiza- tion of educational policies throughout the country has claimed his interest and time. The books he has written are a library in themselves. With all his varied duties he has been a persistent writer of agricultural works, elevating in tone through the urit of their diction and the ease of their st le. Y Y The American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and, yes, a dozen other societies of learned men, may claim his membership and affiliation. But no organization knows him as he is known to his students. How- ever much he has given to the world outside, he has kept much more for us who live with him. However loud may be the praise of the world, never will there be more genuine, heartfelt appreciation for unselfish work than that his students give him. In dedicating this record of the College Year to Professor Bailey, the board ex- presses tangibly the cordial esteem that hosts of students have long felt. Those de- lightful Sunday evenings when, gathered around his hearth, we listened to words of advice and felt the spiritual uplift of his presence have borne abundant fruit in the -lives and sympathies of his students. The board feels fortunate that the book of IQO8 should bear testimony to the rise of a great work. Honored are we at the privilege of handing down to succeeding generations of Cornellians this proof of the affection the students bear him, their warm friend and counselor. Let his great work grow. As Cornellians now unborn will turn these pages dedicated to Professor Bailey, may they learn to know the record and ideals of a leader of the people and be moved to grateful appreciation for the honor he did Cornell. 10