6 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
THE COMSTOCK DEPARTMENT IN THE COLLEGE OF 
AGRICULTURE 
Abstract of informal Remarks by L. H. Bailey on the Occasion of the Presenta¬ 
tion of the Comstock Memorial Library Fund, June 13, 1914. 
We are come together to celebrate an event of first importance to 
the University. We are to dedicate a fund for the founding of a 
library for special research; but the occasion of this presentation is 
the celebration of a man. In the last analysis, all that we ever cele¬ 
brate is men and women. This library is to perpetuate the work and 
the influence of Professor Comstock. We have had here a work that 
has grown continuously for forty years, with inspiration, precision 
and effectiveness. It has not been my good fortune to have been one 
of Professor Comstock’s students; but I have had what is in some 
ways the better advantage of being associated with him for many 
years on equal terms. If it has not been my privilege to have pursued 
courses of study in Cornell University, I have had the very great 
compensation of personal association with many of the men. Per¬ 
haps, therefore, I have a right to speak; and possibly I may be able 
to formulate very briefly the common feeling on the occasion of this 
celebration. We have all seen this particular unit in the University 
grow and prosper. I think I know several reasons why it has pros¬ 
pered. 
First, as one connected with the administration of education 
through a number of years, I have been impressed with the perfect¬ 
ness and directness of the organization of Professor Comstock’s 
Department. Although it has grown to comprise many persons on 
its staff, it has been a single-minded Department, all the elements 
working together toward one productive end. I am not thinking of 
a business organization, because departments of instruction can never 
be organized on the regularized basis of commercial concerns; and 
yet the business affairs of the Department have been competent and 
complete. I have been aware of the promptness of the Department 
to meet the demands upon it, and to supply information, reports and 
suggestions. It has been a pleasant Department with which to work, 
its records have been ready and on time; its students have been 
under control; it has been compact; it has had a departmental 
policy, and therefore has been a good working unit. All this means 
that the Department is adapted to its ends. I have been impressed, 
also, with the large part that the personal welfare of the student has 
