ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

heard Professor T. Norman Hurd, PhD
'36, who is on leave from the Department
of Agricultural Economics to serve
as State Budget Director, defend Governor
Rockefeller's controversial twobillion-dollar
budget as a marked step
to achieving pay-as-you-go financing
and restoring fiscal soundness to the
State. Another popular speaker was Professor
Marlin G. Cline, PhD '42, Agronomy,
who told a large audience what he
had learned about Russian agriculture
while on a State Department-sponsored
tour of the Soviet Union last summer.
He reported that Soviet farmers and scientists
"know everything we know in
agricultural science'* and are trying to
equal the United States in per capita
production of meat, butter, and milk.
Almost all the farmers there grow or
raise just about everything, he said. This
often means doing things that would appall
American farmers, like growing
apples in cold climates by so much pruning
and branch-bending that the result
is "an apple bush with questionable
yields." As for Soviet drawbacks, Professor
Gline said, their erosion problem
is "more serious than they recognize." In
his twentieth and last Farm & Home
Week address, Dean Myers urged New
York State farmers to combine into
fewer and larger farm units. Speaking
to an audience of several hundred on
"What's Ahead for the New York Farmer?",
he said that farm communities will
also have to make major adjustment in
their school systems in the near future.
Not only will schools, like farms, have to
be consolidated into a smaller number
of larger, more efficient units, he stated,
but "with farming requiring more knowledge
of business, mechanics, and science,
there is a growing need for college educated
farmers."
High School Students Learn of Science
Helping to swell attendance figures
were some 2000 students from high
schools throughout the State who visited
the College of Agriculture as part of a
high school natural science program
started this year. They had special lectures
and demonstrations in the natural
sciences given by twenty Faculty members
from fourteen Departments of the
College. Divided into groups of twentyfive
and supervised by graduate students,
the youngsters followed a five-day
itinerary of lectures and demonstrations
on such subjects as genetic aspects of
evolution, radioactive substances in research,
how animals hear, what makes
plants flower, and separating chemical
compounds from mixtures. At the close
of the formal program each day, Faculty
members answered questions about
professional opportunities in their fields.
Principals of every public and private
high school in the State were invited
to send selected students and science
teachers to participate in the program.
Professor John M. Kingsbury, Botany,
was in charge.
About 400 events and eighty exhibits
were featured at Farm & Home Week
this year. A spectacular exhibit was a
demonstration of the use of radioactive
materials conducted by Professor Robert
A. Monroe, Avian Physiology. Using
Strange Sounds—Three-year-old Mary Ann
Michel listens to the clicks of a Geiger
counter as it picks up the radiation from her
radium-dialed watch. The demonstration
was part of a larger exhibit on "atomic energy"
in poultry research. Holding the Geiger
counter is Professor Robert A. Monroe,
Avian Physiology, who was in charge of the
exhibit. Holding Mary Ann is her father,
Alwin E. Michel, Jr., Grad.
College of Agriculture
radioactive isotopes, Professor Monroe
traced the path of a quantity of calcium
through a chicken's digestive system,
her blood stream, and into the egg. The
exhibit included flashing lights, moving
needles, and intricate measuring devices
that showed precisely how the chicken
puts calcium into an egg; a, Geiger
counter set up to indicate just how fast
the hen is working; and a two-foot
sketch of a chicken which showed the
path of the isotopic calcium on its way
to the egg. Other well attended events
were a "Chick-o-rama," which showed
baby chicks hatching continuously; an
exhibit of live woodland animals, birds,
and reptiles; and a display of flowering
philodendrons and orchids. In Home
Economics, a featured event was
"Chemistry in the Kitchen," a demonstration
and discussion of how chemical
principles are applied in preparing family
meals. The College also had such
varied exhibits as books and toys for
young children; designs in wood; and
rug making.
Alumni Presidents Gather—Fifteen past-presidents of the Agriculture Alumni Association
attended the fiftieth anniversary luncheon in Willard Straight Hall, March 26. In front is
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. '91 of Lawyersville, first president of the Association. Second row,
from left, are Thomas E. LaMont '27 of Albion; State Commissioner of Agriculture Don J.
Wickham '24 of Hector; Malcolm B. Galbreath '26 of Morrisville; Richard F. Fricke Ί7
of Ithaca; E. Victor Underwood Ί3 of Ithaca; and Professor A. Wright Gibson Ί7, Director
of Resident Instruction for the College. In the back row are Lloyd E. Curtis '35 of Geneva;
William H. Sherman '35 of Victor; Peter J. McManus '32 of Trumansburg; Joseph H. Pendergast
'38 of Cobleskill; Harold J. Evans '17 of Georgetown; James R. Hazlitt '24 of Hector;
Joseph P. King '36 of Rochester; and Morton Adams '33 of Sodus, who was re-elected
president this year.
College of Agriculture
April 15, 1959
Agriculture Alumni Celebrate
Fiftieth anniversary luncheon of the
College of Agriculture Alumni Association,
March 26, had 215 alumni and
Faculty members gathered in the Willard
Straight Memorial Room. The secretary-treasurer,
Professor A. Wright
Gibson '17, Director of Resident Instruction
in the College, noted that the
Association was formed February 5,
1909, and has served the College in
many ways through the years. He recounted
some of the accomplishments
and said that a current important activity
is the organization of alumni committees
in all counties of the State to
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