FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



Corson and Prentiss were very good fellows. After I had been 

 in Washington for a few years, it occurred to me that I would 

 try for a Master's Degree, and I wrote to Cornell about it. They 

 replied that they would take my year's post-graduate study at 

 Ithaca into account as well as the papers I had published, but 

 that they would require a thesis and an examination in botany. 

 I submitted as a thesis a paper that I had recently prepared and 

 that was ready for publication. I remember that its title was 

 "The Morphology of the Chalcidid^." I wrote to Professor 

 Prentiss and asked him about the botany examination. He 

 replied that I should prepare an herbarium of one hundred 

 species of plants to which I should attach the names, and that 

 I should then come to Ithaca and undergo an oral examination. 

 I enjoyed the preparation of the herbarium and took it with me 

 to Ithaca. This was the oral examination: 



Prentiss: "Good day, Mr. Howard. I have looked at your 

 herbarium and find the specimens neatly mounted and correctly 

 named. You enjoy your work in Washington, I hope? Professor 

 Comstock has told me nice things about it. How is your mother 

 now? And where is she?" 



Howard: "She is very well, Professor, and happens just now 

 to be in London." 



Prentiss: "Will you please give her my cordial greetings when 

 you write? That is all. The examination is finished." 



And I got my Master's Degree at Commencement in 1886, 

 Since that time I have always thought of Professor Prentiss in 

 a most friendly way. He was a fine man and a very kindly one. 

 He was an admirable botanist and would probably have made a 

 great name, had he not died at a comparatively early age. 



Many of my early recollections of Ithaca were connected with 

 the church. My parents belonged to the First Presbyterian Church, 



[22] 



