FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



weight. The President with his broader oudook carried tact to 

 the extreme, it seemed to me. On thinking it over, however, I 

 realized that he had to hve with these people, while we outsiders 

 did not. And, after all, things went well. But there were two 

 emergencies that aroused my rather strenuous opposition to the 

 local people. One was the typhoid epidemic in Ithaca and in the 

 University, and the other the abolition of the School of Forestry. 

 These are old stories, and it is unnecessary to retell them. 

 Typhoid dangers have largely passed away, and the School of 

 Forestry has been reestablished. The saddest thing about the 

 latter, however, was the dismissal of my old friend, B. E. Fernow. 

 I shall say something about this fine man and the Forestry 

 episode in later pages. 



During his term of office as President of the University, Dr. 

 Schurman was twice given long leaves of absence, the first to 

 go as a commissioner to the Philippine Islands and the other to 

 serve as Minister to Greece. When he finally gave up his position 

 at Cornell, he was made Minister to China, and later, after we 

 had resumed diplomatic relations with Germany, ambassador to 

 that country. He filled all of these posts very acceptably. 



After the expiration of my trusteeship in 1905, there followed 

 another long absence from Central New York. I went back to the 

 University at the time of the impressive semi-centennial of its 

 founding in 1918 and again to the semi-centennial of the gradua- 

 tion of my class in 1927. And once more I returned in 1928 as 

 President of the Fourth International Congress of Entomology 

 that was held at Ithaca, for the first time in the United States, 

 previous meetings having been held in Brussels, Oxford and 

 Zurich. 



I think of Ithaca as the wooded village of my boyhood, and, 

 after all, it has not changed so greatly. It has more than trebled 

 in size, but that is nothing in our country of rapidly growing 

 cities. It is still densely shaded, its gardens are beautiful, its 



[20] 



K 



