28 Boyhood, Early Schooling, and Teaching 



" four classes of insects that seriously affect American productive 

 industries for good or for evil. These [were]: 1st. Insects affect- 

 ing the cotton plant. 2d. Silkworms. 3d. Insects affecting the 

 orange and which so seriously threaten orange culture in Florida. 

 4th. Insects affecting the cranberry." -^ As yet, federal research 

 had not been coordinated with instruction such as was being de- 

 veloped in colleges of agriculture over the nation in the 1870's, 

 notably by BurriU in Illinois, Charles H. Fernald in Maine, Com- 

 stock in New York, and Popenoe in Kansas.^*' 



Cook, like Beal, had been influenced by study under Agassiz. 

 He generously advised youthful students of natural history, es- 

 pecially those interested in entomology. On June 13, 1877, he 

 wrote Erwin Smith concerning a larval specimen of what he 

 thought might be Apple-tree Canker-Worm. He suggested the 

 desirability of securing the mature insect since its origin was in 

 doubt and a matter of importance. 



Plants, nevertheless, remained his favorite study. In 1879 E. H. 

 Hunt of Saranac told him that in the library of a nearby grange 

 could be found " a full set of the [Michigan] State Pomological 

 and Board of Health reports," together with four volumes of 

 reports of the United States Department of Agriculture. Smith 

 began to make use of these. An interest in forestry, encouraged 

 by Beal probably, was aroused when the early reports on this sub- 

 ject became available. During his senior year in high school, how- 

 ever, much of his time for study and reading was taken by neces- 

 sary employments. In 1880 to provide finances to complete his 

 schooling and prepare for college that year, he worked as a prison 

 guard at the Ionia State Reformatory. 



On June 25, 1880, he was graduated from the Ionia high school, 

 and for the graduation exercises he composed the school's 

 "Alumni Song," which expressed characteristically his love of, 

 and search for, truth. Fourteen students made up the graduating 

 class. 



That summer he attended the summer school of Michigan 

 Agricultural College at Lansing. He roomed with G. H. Failyer, 

 later professor of chemistry at Kansas State Agricultural College. 



"" Report of the Entomologist, Ann. Rpt. of the Coinin' er of Agric. for 1878: 209, 

 Washington, Gov't Print. Off., 1879. 



^° Fragfne>Us of entomological history, op. cit., 95. Concerning the Entomological 

 Commission, idem, 35-36. 



