174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



college method of raising the business of farming 

 to an intelligent and dignified calling. But fortu- 

 nately, my friend Mr. Buchanan had a wider view 

 and a stronger faith than I in the new agricultural 

 education, and when I asked his advice about ac- 

 cepting the position he said: "If you don't ac- 

 cept it I'll never forgive you it's the great op- 

 portunity of your life don't hesitate a moment 

 even though your title will be only that of Assistant 

 Professor. If you can't change that for a full 

 professorship very soon then you are not the man 

 I think you are." And that's the way I came to 

 go to Cornell as I supposed perhaps for only a 

 year or two, for even yet I dreamed of going back 

 to my own farm and being independent. 



Again the switch had been turned and again I 

 had been shunted on to another road. At Ames 

 I had enjoyed the farm end of my work greatly, 

 but I had not become much interested in purely 

 educational lines; that development was to come 

 later. My own judgment and inclination said, go 

 back to Mount Pleasant; but my trusted friend 

 said, go to Cornell it is an opportunity which 

 comes to a man but once in a lifetime you can 

 get a big livestock farm anytime. And so I set 

 out not knowing whither I was going. 



