JOHN WALTON SPENCER 



4 4 4 S for myself I am glad that I have learned to 

 /A know the heart of a child, and that I have lived 

 to see three score and five years." These 

 were the words of " Uncle John " when he retired from 

 his active work in the nature study bureau of Cornell 

 University five years ago; and perhaps the greatest 

 tribute that may be paid to him is to say that he learned 

 to know the heart of a child. 



John Walton Spencer was born at Cherry Valley, N. Y., 

 June 12, 1843. Soon afterward his parents moved to 

 Westfield, Chautauqua county. The district school was 

 where " Uncle John " gained his education, and also 

 gained much ot that knowledge of human nature which 

 was such a help to him in his final chosen field. It was 

 granted him to have one term at a select school in the 

 town, and we know that he made the best of this oppor- 

 tunity. On his coming of age came the young man's 

 desire to see the world and he went west to the Pacific 

 coast. He saw San Francisco in the fever of the war 

 time, when gold was at a premium and gold mining the 

 chief industry of that state. But still he was not satis- 

 fied; he shipped with sailing vessels and visited the 

 Sandwich islands, then an independent native kingdom, 

 and remained there for a year and a half. But the home 

 claimed him and he returned to the farm. 



As he struggled w ith the problems of the farm, the con- 

 viction grew upon him that the State was doing too little 

 to educate the farmer in intelligent methods of agriculture. 

 In 1894 through the inlluence of the Chautauqua Horti- 

 cultural Society, of which Mr Spencer was chairman, 

 an appropriation was made to Cornell University for 

 promoting the horticultural interests of the western 

 counties of the State. Thus began the Cornell extension 

 teaching. Horticultural schools of several days' duration 

 were held in Jamestown and in other places, professors 

 from the college conducting the teaching. Mr Spencer 

 was among the most eager and intelligent of those who 

 came to learn. His mind eagerly grasped the scientific 

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