212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



HORTICULTURE 



When I began at Cornell in 1874, Professor A. 

 N. Prentiss occupied the Chair of Botany and 

 Horticulture. His classes in Botany were always 

 very large as it was a required study in several of 

 the general courses. He had inadequate assist- 

 ance, for it was difficult in these earlier years for 

 the University to get funds even for running ex- 

 penses. Consequently little could be done to give 

 the students a knowledge of the simplest principles 

 of horticulture, though botany was well taught. As 

 both of these branches were fundamental to any 

 broad conception of agricultural education, I was 

 anxious to enlarge the work to include training in 

 practical horticulture and pomology; and all the 

 more as New York was then a leading state in 

 fruit culture. 



I asked for an instructor in pomology and horti- 

 culture and the Trustees appointed Mr. W. R. 

 Lazenby a recent graduate of the Department 

 to that position. He started out in a very simple 

 and economical way, endeavoring to use the land 

 assigned to him for gardens as a working labora- 

 tory and to pay expenses as well. Even under the 

 management of a more experienced man this 



