In the minds of those present, the pensive character of his words caused the address to assume the form of a valedictory and a farewell to the scenes which had been associated with his labors and affections for thirty-six years.

A new power plant was erected in the summer and autumn of 1904, at an expense of fifty thousand dollars, which was appropriated from the income of the university for the years 1901-02. "This consists of a stone gate-house near Beebe Lake (whence the water is drawn), from which a five-foot conduit or tunnel leads underground along the top of the north cliff to a point above the present power-house, and is there joined by a second conduit inclining down through the rock to the new power-house in the bed of the stream."

"The past year has also seen the completion of the Carnegie Filtration Plant, the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, which has been located on the hill to the east of the site selected for the agricultural buildings. The building, which is simple and direct in design, is constructed with plain red-brick walls, relieved by a cornice of stucco, the whole composition deriving character and repose from a roof of dark red tiles with broad, overhanging eaves. The filtration plant itself is unique both in design and construction, for while it is planned primarily with a view to furnishing an abundant supply of absolutely pure water for the university community, it will also be used incidentally for the purposes of scientific research, whereby it is hoped information and data relative to water filtration may be obtained of value to the scientific world. A large coagulation basin, constructed of concrete on the principle of the hydrostatic arch, and containing two stories and four compartments arranged in such a way that one or all can be used as desired, receives the raw water from the pumping station in the Fall Creek

Gorge, whence the supply is drawn. Before entering the coagulation basin, however, the water is charged with a solution of aluminum sulphate, fed into it by a system of gravity from two mixing tanks, which are in turn supplied with the sulphate from two dissolving tanks. After a period of sedimentation, during which the greater part of the impurities in the water are removed, the water is passed on to the sand filters, two in number, and each of a daily capacity of over 300,000 gallons, where it is relieved of all remaining impurities. It is then collected in a pure water well of 28,000 gallons capacity beneath the filters. From here it is fed through pipes into the university reservoir, which has in turn been enlarged to a capacity of about 1,250,000 gallons and covered with a steel roof."

The National Land Grant Act required that every state which availed itself of the provisions of that act should provide a college building for the purpose specified by Congress. The state, in accepting this act, bound itself to provide a building for the purposes stated in the act. This obligation the state had never discharged. Agricultural instruction in the university has suffered from the lack of an adequate home. The valuable work which the university has done in promoting the interests of the farmers of the state,-special courses in agriculture for farmers' boys, the holding of farmers' institutes, the investigation of disease of fruit orchards and in live stock,-had won the gratitude of the farmers of the state; hence the demand that the state should make adequate provision for agricultural education. Farmers' associations throughout the state were unanimous in this request, and it became imperative for the legislators of the state to bow to the demand so universal.

Governor Odell called attention to the fact that other commonwealths had contributed largely to the support

of agricultural education, and that it was important that the state of New York should make adequate provision for this necessary instruction. He added: "There have been many applications from the agricultural interests for such recognition. Without making any specific recommendations as to the line which you should follow, I had desired to impress upon you the necessity for complying with these demands, which I believe to be reasonable and in the interest of New York." This legislation was actively opposed by the presidents of several of the colleges of the state. Unmindful of the fact that their colleges did not provide the instruction in agriculture, and that they were not in a condition to do so, and that Cornell University had furnished the only instruction of this kind which the vast agricultural interests of the state had ever enjoyed, every possible instrumentality was used to defeat the legislation desired. Had the purpose of the bill been to secure an appropriation for literary and scientific subjects, which these institutions afforded, such opposition would have had an apparent justification; but as made, this hostility was directed against a beneficent provision in the interests of popular education. The legislature passed a bill appropriating two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a college of agriculture at Cornell. The trustees selected a site on the east side of Garden Avenue, a new avenue extending from the reservoir southward to Cascadilla Gorge and in a line parallel with East Avenue, on an elevation presenting a splendid panorama of all the surrounding country. The state architect, George L. Heins, will be the architect of the new building.

CHAPTER XXI

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

T

HE formal opening of the university may fitly be taken by the annalist as the beginning of the library's independent existence; but the principles which were to guide its formation and growth had been clearly laid down in the "report of the committee on organization," and, of necessity, much had to be done in the way of collecting books before the library could be said to have an existence. At the sixth meeting of the Board of Trustees, held September 26, 1867, an appropriation of $7,500 for the purchase of books was made, which was increased to $11,000 at the meeting of February 13, 1868. To all who were engaged in the preparations for establishing a fully equipped university on what had been till then a mere hillside farm, the summer of 1868 was an exceedingly busy season. One of the first purchases for the new university—the classical library of Charles Anthon, numbering over 6,000 volumes-had already been made. In the spring, President White had gone to Europe, armed with formidable lists of books and apparatus to be collected, and made large purchases of scientific and literary works, one of the most important of his acquisitions being the library of Franz Bopp, the famous philologist. Thus cases of books and apparatus began to arrive long before any place was prepared to receive them. A temporary shelter, however, was found for the books in the halls and attic rooms of the Cornell Library in this city.

At the opening day in October, the only university

building under cover was Morrill Hall, better known to old Cornellians as the South Building. Of this building the middle section alone was available for library, lecture rooms, and laboratories, both wings being wholly occupied as dormitories.

To the library were assigned the two rooms on the ground floor, the present faculty room, and the registrar's office. The walls of these rooms were lined with tall bookcases, extending to the ceiling. Some of these bookcases, it may be noted, had already done service in the library of the short-lived State Agricultural College at Ovid. These wall bookcases, however, were by no means adequate to contain all the books even then received, and when the university opened, thousands of volumes were still stored away in boxes. Nor was there immediate prospect of obtaining more shelfroom. Indeed, so great and so urgent was the demand for more classrooms, it was found necessary to hold lectures and recitations in the rooms occupied by the library, much to the inconvenience of readers, who were thus, during the greater part of the day, deprived of the use of the books. This state of things continued throughout the first two terms, and the greater part of the third. For though it was promised in January, 1869, that within a few weeks, at most, the new laboratory building would be completed, to which the lectures held in the library rooms would then be transferred, yet in this case, as in so many others, hopes proved delusive, and it was not until April that the laboratory building was ready for occupancy, and May was well advanced before the books were fully in order on the shelves. Comparatively little use was made of the library by the students in the first year.

In December, 1868, the librarian, Professor Willard Fiske, arrived and took charge of the library, which was under his direction from that time until his resig