Our History

The history of the Section of Soil and Crop Sciences (SCS) is traced back to the arrival of George C. Caldwell in 1868 and Isaac P. Roberts in 1874, prior to the establishment of the College of Agriculture. Caldwell performed groundbreaking research in soil fertility and plant analysis, while Roberts initiated experiments on production of wheat, corn, and oats. Resident instruction in agricultural practices and lectures to farmer groups (an early form of extension) were also initiated at that time. In 1903, the Department of Agronomy and the Department of Agricultural Chemistry were established as the first units of the then-new New York State College of Agriculture. For over 100 years, the department has been an intellectual leader in crop and soil sciences and has played a central role related to the mission of the College of Agriculture (now Agriculture and Life Sciences). Dr. Marlin Cline, Chair of the Department from 1963 - 1970, wrote a History of Agronomy at Cornell that includes information from 1868 - 1980.

Much of American research in soil and crop science had its origins in studies of agriculture at Cornell, and it was strongly involved in the establishment of the American Society of Agronomy and subsequently the Soil Science and Crop Science Societies of America. In the first decades, research emphasis was on crop production research. In 1904, soil science rapidly developed with fundamental research becoming an important component. An additional area of soils activity was established in 1905 with the addition of a soil survey leader. In 1907, construction began with the Cornell lysimeters, which were the focus of much of the research through the 1920's. Many publications resulted from this work and dealt mainly with the losses of inorganic plant nutrients in drainage water and uptake of nutrients by crops under various treatments. This work established a precedent and standard of excellence that influenced many modern research efforts to measure, interpret and predict the fate of chemicals in soils and their delivery to water. The department was also among the first to establish overseas research programs, gaining a preeminent international reputation in agronomy. The changing priorities of society during the 1960's led to the growth of research on environmental and health-related problems along with emphasis on soil resources, forage crops and weeds that continued through the 1970's and 1980's. Since 2006, the department has become an integral part of new curricula in Agricultural Sciences and Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, which provide undergraduate students with integrated and diverse opportunities for studies. In 2014, the department joined with four other CALS departments to form the the School of Integrative Plant Science, and changed its name to the Section of Soil and Crop Sciences (SCS).

SCS was the first agronomy department in the nation to offer graduate education, and has trained many of the country’s first crop and soil scientists. There have been over 1,200 Masters and Doctoral degrees granted in soil and crop sciences since 1888. Many of its former graduates hold leadership positions at academic, research and governmental institutions around the world. Two recent World Food Prize laureates (Pedro Sanchez, 2002, and Colin McClung, 2006) received degrees from the department.

Research Farm History

Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology has roots in Geneva and Ithaca, originally two separate departments that merged in 2010 to form a single institution for the study of plant disease. Activity in Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at each of these campuses began in the late 19th century.

Plant Pathology Photography Site

The Plant Pathology photography site contains images captured by a succession of four Cornell science photographers over the past 100 years. These galleries span a period of great advances in plant pathology -- the study of plant diseases -- and put on display the photographic methods that are central to the discipline. See also the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium photo collections page.

Timeline

1868
The history of plant pathology at Cornell began when the university opened its doors in 1868. A.N. Prentiss, a mycologist who held the titles of Professor of Botany, Superintendent of Grounds, and Director of Manual Labor, offered a course titled "Parasitic Fungi" that first year. Some variation of the course has been offered ever since on the Ithaca campus.

1880
The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station was established at Geneva by an act of the New York state legislature with the mandate to promote agriculture in New York through scientific investigation.

1882
The doors officially opened to the Geneva agricultural station, the sixth facility of its kind in the nation. The station included 125 acres of land, a laboratory building, living quarters for researchers and several farm buildings. It employed four faculty members and one staff member who acted as the janitor, stable boy, receptionist and maintenance man.

1884
Joseph Charles Arthur was hired as a botanist to study plant diseases in Geneva, making him the first plant pathologist hired by a state agricultural experiment station in the United States. 

1886
One of Cornell's first Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degrees was granted to J.C. Arthur for his work on the fire blight disease of pear.

1906
H. H. Whetzel is appointed assistant professor and head of Botany in the recently established New York State College of Agriculture. 

1907
Whetzel establishes the Ithaca department.  At his request, the name of the department was changed to Plant Pathology and Whetzel was advanced to Professor. Several other departments of plant pathology were established in 1907 in the United States, each claiming to be first.  If the Cornell department was not the first, it was certainly among the first. 

1922
L.M. Massey became head of a plant pathology department in Ithaca, which had grown to eight faculty members who had attained a worldwide reputation for research on fungi and plant diseases and for training students.

1923
The Geneva Station officially became a unit of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University.  At that time professional staff at Geneva became members of the faculty, but it was not until 1943 that they received professor titles.   

1933
The president of Cornell University officially approved the Geneva Station "subject-matter units" being designated as departments.

1950
G.C. Kent became chair of the Ithaca department. By the mid-1950's, demands on the faculty had grown such that there were 22 professors focusing on individual or related crops or pathogen types.  Among many significant events in Kent's term was the recruitment of D.F. Bateman (1970), the first person hired to study the fundamental nature of pathogenesis rather than to work on a specific crop or group of pathogens.

1973
Faculty members in Geneva participate in an interdisciplinary team to develop the Integrated Pest Management Program, which has resulted in a 30 to 80 percent reduction in pesticide use on crops in New York through the use of disease forecasting, insect monitoring, and the conscious implementation of cultural and biological controls.

1998
Geneva virologist Dennis Gonsalves developed and released two new papaya cultivars genetically engineered to resist Papaya ringspot virus. Dr. Gonsalves used the gene gun, also developed at Geneva, to "vaccinate" the plants. All previous worldwide efforts to obtain resistant varieties had failed, and these new lines were credited for saving the $47 million Hawaiian papaya industry from ruin.  For this work, Dr. Gonsalves was awarded the 2002 von Humboldt Award for Agriculture, one of the world's most prestigious agricultural science awards.  

2007
The departments on both campuses changed their name from the Department of Plant Pathology to the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology. The new name is a more accurate reflection of modern research and teaching than runs the gamut from applied work on diagnosing and managing plant diseases to the molecular bases of interactions between plants and their pathogens and symbionts.

2010
The Departments of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology in Ithaca and Geneva merge to create a single academic powerhouse for the study of the causes and management of plant disease and the fundamental interactions between plants and microbes. The newly-formed department includes 38 faculty members and 84 support staff on two campuses.

2014
Five departments at Cornell – Plant Biology, Horticulture, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Crop and Soil Sciences, and Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology  –  were integrated into one administrative unit.  The department name was changed to the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science.

History of plant pathology in Ithaca by G. C. Kent and A. G. Newhall.

1880 to 2010: The administrative route from an independent plant pathology unit at Geneva to integration with Ithaca---

Jim Hunter

The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, often called the Geneva Station, was established by the state legislature in 1880 as an independent institution to promote agriculture in New York through scientific research. In 1923 the Geneva Station officially became a unit of the College of Agriculture. At that time “professional staff” at Geneva became members of the faculty but it was not until 1943 that they received professor titles. Ten years later the president of Cornell officially approved the Station “subject-matter units” being designated as departments. Finally, in 2010 the Department of Plant Pathology at Geneva joined with the department at Ithaca in the newly named Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology.

1884

J. C. Arthur was hired at Geneva as a botanist to study plant diseases, making him the first “plant pathologist” hired by a state agricultural experiment station in the United States. Notably, two years later he received the first doctorate in “the Sciences” granted by Cornell University. Arthur conducted pioneering research on fire blight, but left after four years and later became famous for his work on rust diseases.

1894

F. C. Stewart was hired as a mycologist and assigned to a substation on Long Island that had been established by the director of the Geneva Station, which in 1946 was administratively shifted to Cornell’s College of Agriculture in Ithaca. He transferred to Geneva in 1898 to become Head of the Division of Botany, a position he held for 38 years. He is best remembered for discovering a disease of corn called Stewart’s Wilt.

1936

The Division of Botany was divided into two divisions, with one being the Division of Plant Pathology, with O. A. Reinking as Head. Some of the research responsibilities were transferred to the Department of Plant Pathology in Ithaca at that time, with major emphasis at Geneva remaining diseases of fruit crops and processing vegetables.

1936-1944

W. H. Rankin was hired and his limited success in controlling mosaic disease of raspberry plants by rouging led him to conclude that breeding for resistance held the most potential. Breeding for resistance to diseases of fruit and vegetable crops later became an important thrust of programs at Geneva that continues to the present.
During this period J. M. Hamilton began developing laboratory facilities to determine the “practical mode of action” of fungicides and best usage practices to control diseases of tree fruits, in addition to carrying out extensive field tests that led to fungicide recommendations used by tree-fruit growers throughout the Northeastern U. S. He saw the beginning of the era of organic fungicides and he, and later M. Szkolnik, carried on this work for many years.

In 1939 J. G. Horsfall resigned from Geneva to join the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station after a remarkable ten years of research during which he developed fungicide seed treatments. He later became director of the Connecticut Station, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and co-author of the five-volume publication, Plant Pathology: an Advanced treatise.
G. L McNew was also a plant pathologist at Geneva during Horsfall’s time there. He left in 1944 and from 1949 until 1974, he was Managing Director and Distinguished Scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute, which is now located on the Cornell campus in Ithaca.

1968

The department at Geneva moved into three floors of a new research facility with modern, well-equipped laboratories including electron microscopes, growth chambers and walk-in mist chambers, as well as spacious greenhouses attached to the building. Following this, several plant pathologists were hired to develop research programs using emerging technologies, and programs began to shift from a crop focus to a pathogen-discipline focus directed toward understanding and managing diseases of fruit and vegetable crops.

1973

A four-person steering committee involving faculty from both Geneva and Ithaca, including J. E. Hunter, chairman of the Department of Plant Pathology at Geneva, established the framework for Cornell’s Integrated Pest Management Program. The extensive evaluation of fungicides for diseases of fruit and vegetable crops that had been carried out over many years and a long history of research on the biology of fungal pathogens of these crops by pathologist at Geneva and Ithaca were essential components of advisory systems used by the IPM program to increase the likelihood that pesticides were used judiciously and integrated with other control practices when feasible.

1968- Present: Contributions by senior faculty

The hiring of new faculty and the availability of modern research technologies and facilities have resulted in some significant contributions made by plant pathologists at Geneva, of which a few examples follow:
R. M. Gilmer was co-author of a study that demonstrated pollen transmission of necrotic ringspot and prune dwarf viruses in sour cherry trees, which helped to explain the rapid spread of these viruses in commercial orchards. His research on virus diseases of grapevines and his leadership resulted in the establishment of a grapevine disease certification program that reduced the chance of grape growers buying virus-infected plants.

In 1969, W. T. Schroeder and R. Provvidenti reported what is probably the first known occurrence of resistance to a fungicide, in this case benomyl, by the fungus causing powdery mildew of cucurbits. Shortly thereafter M. Szkolnik and J. D. Gilpatrick, discovered that the fungus causing apple scab disease had become resistant to the fungicide dodine (Cyprex). These discoveries opened a new era of concern as more cases of resistance to modern organic fungicides began to occur worldwide.

Beginning in 1970 H. S. Aldwinckle initiated a forty-year cooperative program with tree-fruit breeders using traditional breeding methods that led to the development of several apple cultivars and rootstocks with multiple disease resistance. Importantly, he also showed that by using molecular methods and a transformation system he developed, cultivars can be genetically modified to be resistant to fire blight and apple scab diseases without losing their unique characteristics.

From 1968 until 1995, R. Provvidenti discovered and characterized 70 resistance factors that were singly inherited (dominant or recessive) in cultivated vegetables and related wild species to 21 viruses causing diseases of 17 species of vegetables. Many of these genes have been incorporated by breeders in public ad private institutions in the United States and abroad into new cultivars.
D. Gonsalves used mutation technology to produce a mild strain of the ringspot virus that destroys papaya trees and inserted some of the mild strain’s genetic material into the DNA of papaya using the gene gun developed at Geneva. Regenerated plants carrying this modified genetic material were resistant to the ringspot disease. Through Gonsalves’ persistent effect over many years, the federal government approved these genetically modified papaya fruit being marketed commercial—the first instance of this for a fruit crop. Gonsalves’ efforts saved the papaya industry of Hawaii and this approach to modifying fruit crops is now being used by others in an attempt to save other fruit crops where no source of resistance has been found in nature and no alternative control measures are available.

A sequence of discoveries at Geneva led to improved understanding and control of powdery mildew of grapevines, the most important disease of the world’s most widely grown crop. These include R. C. Pearson and D. M. Gadoury discovering that cleistothecia are the primary source of inoculum causing this disease; R. C. Seem and Gadoury showing that the period of susceptibility of grape berries is much shorter than previously thought; and W. F. Wilcox determining that pruning practices can alter the microclimate in the grape canopy enough to have a big impact on disease development. These discoveries have been confirmed in many places and are thought to influence control practices widely.

H. C. Hoch used nano- and microfabrication technologies to study how pathogenic bacteria and fungi interact with their hosts. He discovered that several species of fungi respond to topographical signals on leaf surfaces for growth orientation and initiation of appressoria. He also used micro-fabricated artificial xylem vessels to study how bacteria grow, migrate and develop biofilms.

H. R. Dillard learned that the fungus causing anthracnose disease on tomato fruit can also cause a serious disease on roots, and that small sclerotia produced by this fungus can survive in soil for over five years. She also learned that flee beetles transmit the pathogen causing alternaria leaf spot of cabbage and that wounds made by tools and insects release plant nutrients needed for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum to infect cabbage leaves.

Since 1972 G.S. Abawi has carried out a broad-based research program on soil-borne diseases of vegetables. He has concluded that using good soil management practices to improve “soil health” is an effective management strategy. This has led to his participation in a Cornell multidisciplinary extension team that conducts extension education programs about good soil-management practices throughout the northeastern U. S. He also has studied fungicide treatment of vegetable seeds and diseases caused by nematodes and their control.

T. C. Burr began a program on bacterial diseases in 1975 and showed that the bacterium causing crown gall of grapevines and necrosis of grape roots can survive in grape tissue debris, in wild grapesvines and in propagating material. He also showed that antibiotic resistance to the pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae, is transferred via a plasmid between bacteria.

D. A. Rosenberger conducted studies each spring in eastern New York to provide tree-fruit growers with advice for controlling diseases of these crops, and he conducted research leading to operators of fruit storage facilities to use improved sanitation practices that limited diseases that can develop in storage. He also studied some unusual fruit diseases, including some that were exacerbated by use of the herbicide glyphosate.

J. E. Hunter demonstrated that drop nozzles on spray booms direct fungicide sprays to blossoms inside the canopy of snap bean plants, which is where initial infection
occurs that leads to white mold disease. Other field studies revealed the time limit for systemic fungicides to be applied after ascospores initiate the infection process on bean blossoms. In cooperation with a plant breeder, he developed a technique to detect partial or low levels of resistance to white mold and released lines with this characteristic to commercial breeders.

Programmatic shifts at Geneva from 1884 to 2010

Before the 1970s, faculty at Geneva held 100 percent research appointments although most provided considerable support for growers of fruit and vegetable crops. Gradually some professors were assigned a percentage of their time to the extension function, with all of the fruit pathology extension responsibility being shifted from the Ithaca campus to Geneva in the mid 1970s. In 1984, for the first time, a professor was hired at Geneva with a significant commitment of time to develop an extension program for diseases of vegetable crops.

In 1990, the director at Geneva, J. E. Hunter, a plant pathologist and former chair of the department, wrote a policy stating that in some situations it might be desirable for faculty at Geneva to become involved with teaching courses on the main Cornell campus. Today a course in field plant pathology is led by a professor at Geneva and another professor has occasionally taught a course in nematology. And, the number of plant pathology graduate students doing research at Geneva has increased from one in 1973 to around 20 when H. S. Aldwinckle was department chair. Also, faculty from both campuses serve on the curriculum and graduate student selection committees, which further strengthens the involvement of faculty at Geneva with the educational mission.
The gradual involvement with faculty at Geneva in all three functional areas of college programs--research, extension and education--has helped smooth the path for merging the two departments of plant pathology at both campuses shortly after each changed their name to the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology.

The Department of Plant Biology has a long and distinguished history characterized by faculty and graduates who have made major contributions to science, higher education, and public policy over the past 150 years. Notable faculty members and graduates include, among others:

• Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), who made seminal contributions to the environmental movement in biology, established a model interface between basic and applied sciences that would characterize Cornell for generations and lead to breakthroughs in genetics on a monumental scale during the twentieth century.  For more information: Landmarks and Milestones in American Plant Biology: The Cornell Connection.
   
• William R. Dudley (1849-1911) who obtained a B.S. and M.S. from Cornell, was an assistant professor at Cornell from 1877 until 1891.  He taught classes in botany, horticulture and mycology.  Dudley published “The Cayuga Flora” in 1886, and became professor of Botany at Stanford in 1892.
• Karl McKay Wiegand (1873-1943) received both his B.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell. He was known as a taxonomist and for his encyclopedic memory of the plants of the Cayuga Flora. Wiegand served as chair of botany for 28 years and as president of the Botanical Society of America in 1939.
• Walter Conrad Muenscher (1891-1963) received a Ph.D. from Cornell in 1921. He collected and identified thousands of herbaceous, woody, and aquatic plants.  He is probably best known as a weed scientist, although he also wrote important books about aquatic plants, poisonous plants, and weeds.
   
• Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) received three degrees from Cornell: a B.S. in 1923, a M.S. in 1925, and a Ph.D. in 1927, the second two degrees in Botany. She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Nobel Laureate. McClintock is best known for her research with transposable elements in Zea mays.
   
• George Wells Beadle earned his Ph.D. in 1930, was a Nobel Laureate, and became President of the University of Chicago.
   
• Harlan Parker Banks (1913-1998) obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1940. Banks was known for his teaching skills and his seminal studies of the Devonian flora.  Banks served as president of the Botanical Society of America (1979) and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Botany at Cornell

1865
Cornell University is founded.

1868
Cornell University opens.
Original Department of Botany is founded (1868-1922).
Albert N. Prentiss, becomes head of the Department of Botany (1868-1896).

1870
Original Department of Botany Herbarium is established, based on collections of Horace Mann, Jr.
George F. Atkinson, is head of the Department of Botany (1896-1918).

1904
Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) is established, and the Department of Botany, including its herbarium, is housed in CAS.
New York State Legislature establishes the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell (NYSCA).
Liberty Hyde Bailey becomes the first Dean of NYSCA (1903-1913).

1907
L. H. Bailey establishes the Department of Plant Breeding at NYSCA.
L. H. Bailey establishes the Department of Plant Physiology at NYSCA (1907-1912).

1913
L. H. Bailey establishes the new Department of Botany at NYSCA (1913-1964).
Karl M. Wiegand, becomes head of the new Department of Botany (1913-1941).
Department of Plant Physiology is fused with the recently founded Department of Botany.
Willard W. Rowlee, becomes head of the Department of Botany (1918-1922).

1921-22
The original Department of Botany (in the College of Arts & Sciences) is closed.
The College of Arts & Sciences Herbarium is joined with NYSCA Department of Botany Herbarium to form CU Herbarium.

1935
L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium (BH) is established as an independent unit of NYSCA.

1951
Department of Botany (CU) herbarium is renamed Wiegand Herbarium.

1964
Division of Biological Sciences (DBS) is established within NYSCA (1964-1999).

1965
Section of Genetics, Development, and Physiology (GDP) is established within DBS from parts of the Departments of Botany, Zoology and Plant Breeding (1965-1977).
The Wiegand Herbarium becomes and independent unit within NYSCA, with R.T. Clausen as Curator (1965-1977).
The Laboratory of Cell Physiology, Growth, & Development becomes an independent unit within NYSCA, with F.C. Steward as Head (1965-1973).

1971
NYSCA renamed College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell (CALS).

1977
GDP is renamed to Section of Botany, Genetics, & Development (BGD) (1977-1980).
The Bailey Hortorium Herbarium (BH) and Wiegand Herbarium (CU) merge, staying as an independent unit within CALS-DBS (1977-1999).

1980
The Section of Botany, Genetics, & Development (BGD) is divided into a Section of Plant Biology and a Section of Genetics and Development (1980-1999).

1999
The Division of Biological Sciences and all its sections dissolve and re-organize into several departments.
The current Department of Plant Biology is established by joining the former Section of Plant Biology with the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, with W.L. Crepet as Chair.

2001
The Genomics Initiative hires new faculty, establishes proteomics, and builds Weill Hall (2008).

2013
Plant Biology celebrates its centennial in June 2013 with a weekend of talks, tours, and social gatherings.

2014
Plant Biology joins the newly created School of Integrative Plant Science along with Soil and Crop Sciences, Horticulture, Plant Breeding and Genetics, and Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology.

For more details, see the following references:

Cobb, E.D., 150 Years of Botany at Cornell: A history of botany and plant biology.  Department of Plant Biology, Ithaca, NY.  2013.

Kass, L. B. and Cobb, E. Landmarks and Milestones in American Plant Biology: The Cornell Connection. Plant Science Bulletin. 53(3): 90-101.

Founded in 1907 by Liberty Hyde Bailey, Plant Breeding and Genetics is home to a lengthy and distinguished tradition that includes Nobel Prize winners George W. Beadle and Barbara McClintock. The department’s legacy of pioneering work was solidly established during the 1920s - 1940s, a period regarded by many as the “Golden Era of Genetics.” During these important years, a remarkable number of great scientists and leaders in the field of genetics emerged from the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell.

Cornell continues to build on its legacy of leading edge efforts to link genomics and breeding. One of only a few academic institutions training students in plant breeding today, our work is informed by global perspectives coupled with local action to address issues of sustainability and economic viability.

A Centennial History

On the occasion of the department's centennial, Royse P. Murphy and Lee B. Kass prepared a 179-page account of the history of Plant Breeding at Cornell University.

• Download the Evolution of Plant Breeding at Cornell University (pdf)
• See also, A conversation with Cornell plant breeder Royse Murphy

The current Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Sciences continues a storied tradition encompassing numerous units that have merged to form a unified team pursuing basic and applied research in fruit and vegetable production, ornamental horticulture, floriculture, turfgrass science, post-harvest technologies and other horticultural pursuits. Some histories include:

• A brief history of horticulture at Cornell University - Oyer 2009 wth updates.
• 50 Years of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture at Cornell University - Seeley article in February 1964 bulletin from the New York State Flower Growers Incorporated.
• History of Teaching, Research and Extension in Vegetable Crops at Cornell University 1886-1960 - H.C. Thompson, 1962.
• A Century of Research in Pomology - Oberly in New York Food and Life Science Quarterly, 1987 (v.17 #2).
• A History of Minns Garden

In addition to the pioneering horticultural work pursued by scientists in varous departments and units on the Ithaca campus, many advances were also made at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (now Cornell AgriTech) in Geneva, N.Y. 

Some histories:

• New York State Agricultural Experiment Station: 115 Years of Service to New York Food and Agriculture
• The first 100 years of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, NY
• A history of pomology and viticulture at Geneva

See also:

• History of the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center - Bridgen et al.