4S2 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



DEATH OF PROF. A. N. PRENTISS, '61. 



We are indebted to Prof. A. G. Gulley, '68, of Storrs Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Storrs, Conn., for the following item regarding Prof. Prentiss, who 

 died at Ithaca, N. Y., August 14, 1896. Prof. Gulley was at one time a 

 student under him at M. A. C. : 



"Ko doubt you will have been informed of the death of Prof. A. N. 

 Prentiss before receiving this. Early in July, I spent a day at Cornell 

 and in the evening spent a half hour with him. I felt then it would be 

 my last visit with him, but did not think the end was so near. Although 

 Prof. Prentiss closed his labors at M. A. C. oVer twenty-five years since, 

 his interest in the old institution was as great as ever. He was particu- 

 larly anxious to learn about those with whom he was connected there, 

 both officers and students; and spoke especially about the Record and the 

 pleasure he derived from reading it. 



'Trof. Prentiss w^as born May 22, 1836, at Cazenovia, N. Y. He gradu- 

 ated in 1861 from the Michigan Agricultural College, and in 1865 was 

 made full professor of botany in that institution. On the opening of 

 Cornell University, in 1868, he was called to the chair of botany, horti- 

 culture, and arboriculture, which he had held ever since. 



"Prof. Prentiss conducted the Cornell expedition to Brazil in 1870. In 

 1872 he studied in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, and the 

 Jardine des Plantes at Paris. He was a well-known writer in his branch 

 of science, and in 1872 his essay on the mode of the natural distribution 

 of plants over the surface of the earth took the Walker prize ofifered by 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, and was published in pamphlet 

 form. Prof. Prentiss was well known throughout the scientific world as 

 one of its leading botanists, and his death is a great loss to the university, 

 .as well as to the scientific world." — From M. A. C. Record. 



