The Life of Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Brief Overview

Diane M. Doberneck
Graduate Assistant
The Liberty Hyde Bailey Scholars Program
Michigan State University

This paper was prepared in conjunction with the launch of the Bailey program, February 24, 1997

Men can be classified by the profession or field of activity whereby they achieved their greatness; not so with Liberty Hyde Bailey, for his greatness is due to his manifold contributions produced almost concurrently in many fields. To some persons, his renown is as a botanist, explorer, and horticulturist; to others as an educator, administrator and rural sociologist; to a third group as an editor, lecturer, and writer; while still a fourth group knows him best as a poet, philosopher, and counselor.

He was all these things, and moreover, he was a man of forceful character, personality and energy.

(G. H. M. Lawrence in Nature, 1955)

Liberty Hyde Bailey, born in 1858 on a farm in South Haven, Michigan, became a great man in the history of the agricultural sciences. Among his lifetime contributions, he transformed the field of botany, systematized classifications in the field of horticulture, revolutionized methods in the field of agricultural education and founded the discipline of landscape architecture. In addition, he made profound contributions to rural sociology, specifically in the formation of the cooperative extension system. He was also a prolific writer, producing over 700 titles ranging from elementary school textbooks to volumes of poetry. Liberty Hyde Bailey began his academic career at the Michigan Agricultural College (now the Michigan State University), from which he moved to Cornell University to serve as an instructor and eventually as the Dean of the College of Agriculture.

The Liberty Hyde Bailey Scholars Program is named in honor of this legendary horticulturist and scholar of rural life of the late 19^th through mid-20^th centuries. The Bailey Scholars Program cross-cuts the twelve departments in the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources with a mission of preparing undergraduate students for lifetime contributions as stewards of the biosphere.

The Life of Liberty Hyde Bailey serves as an introduction to Liberty Hyde Bailey’s significant contributions and as a reference for his writings. Following a format suggested by Philip Dorf in Liberty Hyde Bailey: an Informal Biography, this biography is separated into five main sections describing different periods of Bailey’s life: his youth; the professor years; his years as Dean; Critic and Sage; and his later years. Complementing the brief biography is a short piece written by L. S. Robertson of the Crop and Soil Science Department at Michigan State University. In this remembrance, L. S. Robertson describes his experience meeting Bailey in a lecture hall at Cornell University. Finally, in order to demonstrate the depth and breadth of Bailey’s lifetime contributions, the final sections of this paper include a list of Bailey’s Honors, Degrees, and Societies and a bibliography including works by and about Liberty Hyde Bailey.

Liberty Hyde Bailey: a brief biography

Bailey’s Youth in Michigan (1858-1885)

Born in South Haven Michigan, March 15, 1858, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr. was the youngest son of Liberty Hyde Bailey, who had migrated from Townshed, Vermont and Sara (Harrison) Bailey, who came from a distinguished Virginia family. Bailey’s father was renowned for his forthrightness of speech, for his directness of action, and for the unimpeachable integrity of his word. All characteristics which were passed on to the younger Liberty Hyde Bailey. G. H. M. Lawrence, a colleague of Bailey’s at Cornell, notes "the repeated admonitions of the father, ever exemplified by his own living, of the necessity to be honest, to stand upright as you walk and as you live, to have a purpose in what you do, and to do good about you, formed a core of maxims never forgotten by Dr. Bailey and which were reflected throughout his activities" (1955:27).

At an early age, Bailey’s curiosity about the plants, birds, insects, and unusual rocks of the region led him to study them intensely. With the help of a neighbor, he formed a system of classification to help organize his explorations of the natural world around him. By the age of 14, he was grafting scions of superior quality fruit stock to fruit stock of inferior quality for farmers in his neighborhood. It was natural that at the age of 19, Bailey entered the Michigan State (Agricultural) College, where his genius for plant study was soon recognized by William James Beal, a former student of Asa Gray and a pioneer in the laboratory method of teaching botany. In addition to W.J. Beal, other outstanding faculty included R. C. Kedzie in the Chemistry department and A.J. Cook in the Zoology department.

At Michigan Agricultural College, Bailey also studied Darwinian evolution, and in 1880 the Botanical Gazette (5[1880], 76-77) published his article, "Michigan Lake Shore Plants." When Bailey received the B. S. degree in 1882, he had been trained in the use of compound microscopes and had begun experiments with Rubus and other plants. A brief stint as a newspaper reporter on the Springfield, Illinois, Monitor followed his graduation from M.A.C. However, Bailey’s interest in plants remained strong.

As a result, in late 1882, Asa Gray of Harvard employed Bailey "at Cambridge for a year or two" as an assistant in physiological experiments in charge of nomenclature for gardens, greenhouses, and the students’ and garden herbaria. "The late 1800’s were exciting times for the plant sciences in the United States. Largely as an outgrowth of the founding of the land grant colleges, the practical techniques of agriculture and horticulture were wedded to such basic sciences as botany, entomology, and chemistry. In turn, remarkable advances that have characterized American agriculture and horticulture over the past century were made possible. Bailey was in the forefront of this revolutionary movement." (David M. Bates, Director of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium, Ithaca, New York, October 1980 in The Holy Earth, 1980, p. 1-2.)

The Professor (1885-1903)

In 1885 Michigan State (Agricultural) college called him to serve as professor, where he established the department of horticulture and landscape gardening, the first of the kind in the United States. In that same year, the American Pomological Society awarded Bailey its Wilder medal for an exhibit of native nuts and fruits. No later than 1886, he began making crosses and variety studies in Cucurbita, another group on which he became an authority. His instruction in horticulture, in both classroom and field, embraced every facet of the subject as it was then conceived, and introduced such innovations as classification and nomenclature of fruits and vegetables, hybridization, and cross-fertilization of plant varieties. Also in 1886, Bailey was elected president of Ingham County Horticultural Society, received the M.S. degree from Michigan State, and with Joseph Charles Arthur, participated in a botanical survey in Minnesota. The first three of his more than sixty books appeared during this period.

Professor Bailey’s reputation as a teacher and scholar and his zeal to bring knowledge to the farmer attracted the attention of Cornell University. In 1888, he was invited to serve as a professor and chairperson of practical and experimental horticulture, the first such chair in an American university. He held it with distinction as a horticulturist, botanist, rural sociologist, nature-study proponent, editor, poet, philosopher, and world traveler until 1903, when he became the second director of the College of Agriculture.

Our Dean (1903-1913)

When Bailey began his work as instructor at Cornell University, the Department of Agriculture was sometimes referred to as a "college." However, the "college" had no real existence and its special faculty, drawn from other departments of the University was nothing more than a committee of professors who gave courses in the fields related to agriculture. In 1896, following the expansion of regular courses and growth in nature-study and extension programs, the Department was officially designated the College of Agriculture, a primarily administrative change as no new facilities or resources were provided.

The College desperately needed more land for its experimental work. However, by land, land-grant funds under the Morrill Act could not be used to erect buildings. The time had come for New York state to provide Cornell University with the backing which virtually every other state had given its college of agriculture. In 1903, Bailey traveled to Albany to lobby for an appropriation for a new agriculture building. This first visit to the legislature met with marked opposition to which Bailey resolutely responded, "I’ll be back next year."

In 1904, following the seventieth birthday of Dean Roberts, Liberty Hyde Bailey was made first dean of the New York College of Agriculture and the director of its experimental stations. As Dean Bailey, he returned over and over again to the state legislature with his request. He became a lobbyist, marshalling his friends throughout the state behind the bill, urging local granges, farmers’ institutes, and agricultural organizations to send delegations to the capital. In May 1904, Governor Benjamin B. Odell singed the measure; victory parties broke out all over campus. The appropriate of $250,000 for a new agriculture building had been passed.

The bill which the governor signed was not simply for the construction of a new agricultural building; it created a State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. This marked a new policy--state ownership and maintenance with the details of administration left in the hands of the University. On May 5, 1905, the ground was broken for the first building, locating the College of Agriculture on the east edge of campus.

As Dean, Bailey laid down some basic prinicples:

This College of Agriculture was not established to serve or to magnify Cornell University. It belongs to the people of the State... The farmers of the state have secured it....Their influence has placed it here. They will keep it close to the ground....If there is any man standing on the land, unattached, uncontrolled, who feels that he has a disadvantage and a problem, this College of Agriculture stand for that man.

In addition to focusing attention on solving problems for the common farmer, Bailey believed that there was a role for College in home life. Bailey thought that young women should have equal educational opportunities with young men. He reflected, "We have worked out better plans for feeding and rearing pigs and cattle than for humans. The whole range of household subjects must be taught, and if so, there must be a specialization in food, sanitation, nursing, house building, house furnishing, and similar subjects."

Critic and Sage (1913-1928)

During his trip to New Zealand in 1914, Bailey wrote The Holy Earth on scraps of paper and the backs of letters during his long sea voyage. The Holy Earth is not a nature-study manual nor a "rhapsody on the beauties of nature, but a questioning of man’s basic relation to the earth and to his fellow man." It summed up Bailey’s philosophy--that a righteous use of the vast resources of the earth must be founded on religious and ethical values.

In 1917, Bailey and wife set sail for China, where his wife stayed with their daughter, Sally, who had settled in Shanghai. Bailey journeyed in land with the hope of seeing plants, formerly known only in cultivation, growing in the wild, in their original state. Because war broke out, the Baileys cut their tour of the Orient short, forfeiting their travels to Japan and Korea returning to Ithaca in September.

The New York Times reported in February of 1918, that the upstate Democratic leaders "definitely decided that the gubernatorial nomination the Fall should go to Dr. Liberty Hyde Bailey, former Dean of the Cornell College of Agriculture." He ignored this announcement and continued his work. He had made his choice: science, not politics; collecting plants, not collecting votes. Although Bailey wrote, "There is no democracy without personal responsibility," he did not accept this opportunity to participate in politics. Instead, he devoted more of his time to the study of nature.

After the war, Bailey resumed his world travel in search of the origins of cultivated plants, adding to his private collection or his "little shop in the back woods." In the winter of 1920-21, he spent time in Trinidad and Venezuela. Inspired by his travels, Bailey wrote the brief lyrical essay, The Apple Tree in 1922. The Apple Tree represented a continuation of Bailey’s "background books," non-technical works expressing his personal opinions on matters of the day. The Holy Earth (1915) was the first of such books followed by Universal Service (1918) and What is Democracy? (1918). During the twenties, Bailey devoted more of his time to these more general works and published The Seven Stars (1923), The Harvest of the Year (1927), and The Garden Lover (1928). A volume of poems Wind and Weather (1916) rounded out the background book series.

In 1926, Bailey was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and president of the Botanical Society of America. In his opening speech to the AAAS, Bailey commented on the scientific mind:

One never makes the quest unless the mind is open at the start....Herein does this mind differ from the advocate who must prove a case, from that of the preacher who must support a dogma, from that of the politician who must defend a party, and from that of an organization that must enforce a policy....There are no parties in science.

While Bailey was honored by many learned societies with awards and degrees, his interests remained with his science, particularly with palms.

Beyond Three Score and Ten (1928-1954)

Taxonomic studies again received his attention, when he commenced serious study on the systematics of the palms, the curcurits, vitis, rubus, Brassica, and others. During the time intense scientific study, he published more than one hundred systematic papers. Bailey acquired fame as an international traveler and explorer. In 1949, at the age of ninety-one, he visited and collected palms from the lesser Antilles and Tobago.

By 1935, his private herbarium of 125,000 specimens and library of 3,000 volumes reached proportions beyond his ability to maintain and perpetuate. He and Mrs. Bailey donated them to Cornell University as part of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, an institution devoted to studies on the systematics of cultivated plants. Bailey remained the director of the Hortorium until 1951, when he was succeeded by G.H. M. Lawrence.

Having been interrupted by World War Two, Bailey resumed plans for his first trip to Africa in June 1949. Some of Bailey’s Ithaca neighbors, while approving of his trips to Caribbean and South America, were alarmed that a man of his age would entertain a trip to Africa. One acquaintance said, "Suppose you should die in Africa?" Bailey replied, "Then, they would bury me." However, he did make appropriate arrangements in case of such an event. Departure was set for January 12, 1950. The trip was never made.

As he was making final preparations for his trip, Bailey was jostled and fell down some steps in a bank on Wall Street. His upper left thigh bone just below the hip joint was broken. A New York City surgeon pinned the bone with stainless steel spike. Bailey’s health depended on proper convalescence. In early February, he returned to Ithaca and healed at home. However, as Bailey learned to walk again, it became clear that he would not be able to travel to Africa after all.

By 1953, Bailey no longer showed much interest in the Hortorium. He spent his days reminiscing about the early life on the farm. He was ninety-seven, when he died on December 25, 1954.

Liberty Hyde Bailey’s Contributions

It is difficult to identify Bailey’s most significant contribution to the agricultural sciences, as his profound influences are numerous. He is, of course, remembered for his writings--great encyclopedias and important manuals of horticulture and agriculture; his summaries of progress; his texts on the principles of cultivation, harvesting, plant breeding and evolution; his (along with his daughter) Hortus; his beautiful and informative "garden" books; and his so-called "background books."

Bailey significantly changed the study of botany and horticulture as he created a system for studying plants. He was responsible for training a generation of agriculturalists to use this new system. Bailey also transformed the traditional agricultural science approach to solving problems in which experts from specific disciplines solved agricultural problems in isolation. Instead, he encouraged botantists, plant physiologists, and geneticists to work together in the field of horticulture.

Another significant contribution was Bailey’s determination to carry the college of agriculture to the farm and not to restrict its facilities to the student in residence. This expansion was accomplished by the establishment of extension courses and assignment of workers to travel throughout the state of New York to assist and counsel rural people. Bailey’s concern for rural life formed the foundation of today’s cooperation extension system.

However, his greatest contribution was not in the field’s literature or in the encouragement of cross-disciplinary problem solving, but in the reshaping of its character as an applied science. Bailey initiated what was later recognized as a revolution of methods in agricultural teaching and research. This was accomplished by two dicta: (1) that both the student and the faculty member participate in laboratory exercises regained as an integral part of every course; (2) that agricultural subjects of biological nature be based on sound scientific principles, such as experimentation and evidence. These changes in approach, from a situation where the professor had been held as above participating with his students and from a situation a where agriculture and horticulture had been viewed as crafts to be mastered by apprentice, required years to affect.

G.H. M. Lawrence, Bailey’s successor at the Hortorium, described Bailey as a great driving force, a rugged individualist who ruthlessly cut impeding fetters of regimentation and bureaucracy and a man who had the capacity to develop his visions into reality. Bailey summarized his own philosophy of life:

It is a marvelous planet on which we ride. It is a great privilege to live thereon, to partake in the journey, and to experience its goodness. We may co-operate rather than rebel. We should try to find the meanings rather than be stratified only with the spectacles. My life has been a continuous fulfillment of dreams.

Liberty Hyde Bailey - I Don't Know

By L.S. Robertson
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Michigan State University
May 1993

Preface

How long do memories last? How long are they accurate? I don't know the answers to these questions but hopefully the following recollections are valid. They are based upon experiences that occurred more than 50 years ago when Dad told me, a 15 year old, about a "seminar" that he thought I would enjoy. Perhaps this was the first time that I had ever heard the word "seminar."

We lived in the valley in Ithaca, New York, not on the hill. Dad was a graduate student in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University. After supper, Dad and I walked up the hill. He pointed out the building where the "seminar" would be held and gave me the room number. He continued on to the library.

The Setting

As I walked into the seminar room, I saw an old man behind the laboratory bench which was located at the lowest level of the classroom. The student desks were arranged in rows on stairsteps which seemed to rise to the ceiling. I selected a seat in the center of the second row and tried to make myself comfortable. The old man and I were the only people present.

The Story

The old man, if Dad had told me his name I did not recall it, looked up and asked, "Can I help you?"

My response was, "No." I believed I was in the right room and it was not yet 7:00 when the seminar was scheduled to start.

The old man returned to his activities and others came into the room and seated themselves in the lower rows in a random arrangement. I think that most of the people were neither students nor faculty. Therefor, they must have been townspeople. Regardless, they all seemed to be much older than I.

The old man again caught my eye and asked, "Are you in the right room/" My response was short, "Yes," because I had double checked the room number.

"Very well," was the reply I thought I heard.

After a few moments, the old man walked out from behind the desk and placed himself directly in front of me. Looking me in the eye he asked, "Young man, what are we going to talk about tonight?"

I was embarrassed to have been selected to be questioned. This situation was not anticipated and I did not know how to reply to the question so I simply said, "I don't know."

In a kindly but also firm no nonsense voice, the old man then asked, "In what are you interested?" All this time he stood squarely in front of me and looked directly at me while he ignored all of the others in the room. The others must have been more than twice my age. At least this is the way it seemed.

My response was again, "I don't know," because my interests were broad. My interest in biology was as intensive as in sports. At that time I did not recognize that my interests were wide. The only response I seemed to be able to give was, "I don't know."

The old man did not like what I said and thank goodness recognized that my answer was not valid. He shook his head and said, "Let's start all over. I'll give you 30 seconds to decide on what you are interested." He reached into his pocket and produced a large watch. After what I assumed was 30 seconds, he said, "And young man, what are your interests?" But I blurted out, "Turtles." He replied, "Turtles? So am I. What made you think of turtles?"

I started to say, "I don't know," but quickly changed it to, "I remembered that turtle shell out in the hallway."

While I do not recall the difference between a turtle and a tortoise, I think he told me that the shell was from a tortoise, not a turtle.

The old man had helped a professor somebody to capture and kill the tortoise. He had also helped to prepare the skeleton and finally to ship it back to Cornell University. He then proceeded to describe the other life on the Galapagos Islands, both flora and fauna and the recent geology of the islands.

It was a fascinating story that he told and after some time he again reached into his vest pocket, produced the watch and announced that it was 8:00 pm, time to terminate the seminar.

As far as I remember, I was the only person in that group that the old man had recognized all evening. I know that I was the only person he had looked at.

As I got up to leave, he asked, "Young man, will you return next week?"

My answer was a simple, short, "yes." I don't remember telling him that I liked the "seminar" but did not appreciate the questions that he had used to start the discussions.

His final advice was, "Have a subject in mind for discussion next week so that we do not get lost."

As I recall, I soon met my Dad and together we walked down the hill to the southwest corner of Cayuga and Tompkin Streets where we lived. As we walked, I told Dad about how this old man had at first embarrassed me with questions and then had described some of the most beautiful biological reactions I had ever heard about. As I recall, I attended two more seminars and each time I was the only person this old man talked to.

It was not for years that I knew who the old man was. In the meantime, I had gone through high school, Purdue University and was a graduate student at Michigan State University, or College as it was called at that time. By this time, I knew a little about Liberty Hyde Bailey but did not recognize that I had actually interacted with him years ago.

Dad knew a little about Liberty Hyde Bailey including the fact that he had gone to school at Michigan's Agricultural College, and was the first Head of the Horticulture Department, etc. Soon after coming to East Lansing, Dad and Mom came to visit. While showing them around the College and the City of East Lansing and after seeing Bailey School and Bailey Street, Dad asked if I recalled meeting Liberty Hyde Bailey.

The answer was no. Dad then described how upset I was when an old man embarrassed me with his questions years ago. Yes, according to Dad the old man was Liberty Hyde Bailey, internationally known horticulturalist, botanist, naturalist, etc.

Since those experiences, I have read some about Liberty Hyde Bailey. One point is clear. This man was interested in people, young people. He was a great teacher--also a great and prolific writer on many subjects.

One point bothers me a little. I have read where he had some sort of a speech problem. Perhaps he stuttered. If he did, it did not affect his ability to communicate. As I recall, his voice was soft and he spoke in an unhurried way. I do not remember his face, even though I have seen many pictures. I do remember how truthful and understanding his face seemed to be, especially the eyes. I have considered the work peaceful to describe the face of Liberty Hyde Bailey. That word does not necessarily fit. Truthful and understanding are the only word that came to mind at this time.

Yes, I knew a famous man but I did not know how famous. I only knew he was great, a great teacher, a man whose name I didn't know for more than 10 years. How that situation could exist, I will never know. Thank goodness Dad was interested in me, had a good memory and had lived to recall my encounters with Liberty Hyde Bailey.

Reprinted with Permission from: "Rambling Through Time: Short Essays" by Lynn S. (Buc) Robertson, Jr. The Heart of the Twentieth Century Lewiston, Idaho: Hesse and Hesse Publishing, 1991. Pp. 26-29.

Liberty Hyde Bailey Bibliography

Liberty Hyde Bailey’s writings cover a span of eighty-one years and include essays, articles, monographs, research papers, jointly authored works, cyclopedias, several edited series, an edited journal, and books including elementary school text books and volumes of poetry. The following bibliography demonstrates the depth and breadth of Bailey’s contributions to the literature of agricultural sciences over his entire lifetime.

However, this bibliography is only partially complete. It does not include his contributions to taxonomic botany, his research reports on horticulture, plant-breeding, rural sociology, and education administration, nor the one hundred and seventeen titles of Macmillan-pulished agricultural books edited by Bailey from 1890-1940. In addition, it does not include various articles, poems, and editorials appearing in American Garden, Baileya, Botanical Gazette, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, The College Speculum, The Cornell Countryman, Cornell Nature-Study Bulletins, Cornell Rural School Leaflets, Country Life in America, Gentes Herbarum, R.U.S. Rural Uplook Service, Science, and Teachers’ Leaflets on Nature Study.

Books Written by Liberty Hyde Bailey

Field notes on Apple Culture. 90 p. Orange Judd Co., New York, 1886.

The Garden Fence. 36 p. Wright & Potter Co., Boston, 1886.

Talks a-field: about plants and the science of plants. 173 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1887.

Horticulturist’s rule-book: a compendium of useful information for fruit-growers, truck-gardeners, florists, and others. 236 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1890. Ed. 2 completed in 1893 (221 p.); New and revised ed. completed in 1908 (312 p.) The Macmillan Publishing Co., New York.

Annals of Horticulture in North America for the year 1889: a witness of passing events and a record of progress. 249 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1890.

The Nursery-book: a complete guide to the multiplication and pollination of plants. 304 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1891. Ed. 2, a reissue of ed. 1. Ed. 3, 365 p. The Macmillan Co., 1896. Eds. 4-15, reissues of ed. 3.

Annals of Horticulture in North America for the year 1890. 312 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1891.

Cross-breeding and Hybridizing. 44 p. Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1892.

American Grape Training; an account of the leading forms now in use of training American grapes. 95 p. The Rural Publishing Co., New York, 1893.

Annals of Horticulture in North America for the year 1892. 387 p. Rural Publishing, New York, 1893.

Annals of Horticulture in North America for the year 1893. 179 p. Orange Judd Co., New York, 1894.

Plant-breeding: being six lectures upon the amelioration of domestic plants. 293 p. The Macmillan Co., 1895. Ed. 2, 355 p., 1902. Ed. 3, 334 p., 1904. Ed. 4, with a new chapter on current plant-breeding practice. 483 p., 1906.

The Survival of the Unlike: a collection of evolution essays suggested by the study of domestic plants. 515 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1896.

The Forcing Book: a manual of the cultivation of vegetables in glass houses. 266 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1896. Ed. 2-9, reissues of ed. 1

The Principles of Fruit-growing. 516 p. New York, 1897. Ed. 2, 1898. Eds. 3-19, reissues of ed. 2. Ed. 20, completely revised, 423 p., 1906.

The Principles of Agriculture. 300 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. Eds. 2-14, reissues of ed. 1. Ed. 15, completely revised, 432 p., 1915.

Lessons with Plants: suggestions for seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of vegetation. 491 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. Ed. 2, a reissue of ed. 1.

The Pruning-book: a monograph of the pruning and training of plants as applied to American conditions. 537 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. Eds. 2-11, reissues of ed. 1.

First Lessons with Plants: being an abridgement of "Lessons with Plants." 117 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898.

Garden-making: suggestions for utilizing of home grounds. 417 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. Ed. 2, a reissue of ed. 1. Ed. 3, revised. 417 p., 1899. [Reprinted as separated "editions" to 1909].

The Pruning-Manual. 407 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1916.

Sketch of the Evolution of our Native Fruits. 461 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1898.

Botany: an elementary text for schools. 355 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1900. Ed. 2 (1901) is a reprint of ed. 1 with corrections. Eds. 3-11, reissues of ed. 2. Ed. 12, 431 p., 1907. "New edition" with subtitle "a guide to the knowledge of the vegetation of the neighborhood," 456 p., 1913.

The Principles of Vegetable-gardening. 485 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1901. Eds. 2-8, reissues of ed. 1. Ed. 9, 458 p., 1910. Eds. 10-17, reissues of ed. 9. Ed. 18, 490 p., 1921.

Nature Portraits: studies with pen and camera of our wild birds, animals, fish, and insects 9text only, plates and illustrations "by the best nature photographers"). 40 p. Doubleday, Page, & Co., New York, 1902.

The Nature-study Idea: being an interpretation of the new school-movement to put the child in sympathy with nature. 159 p. Doubleday, Page, & Co., New York, 1903. Ed. 2, a reissue of ed. 1, 1905. Ed. 3, 246 p., p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1909. Ed. 4, revised, 1911.

Outlook to Nature. 269 p. p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1905. New and Revised ed. 195 p., 1911.

The State and the Farmer. 177 p. p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1908. Ed. 2, reissue of ed. 1, 1911.

First Course in Biology. Part I. Plant biology, 204 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1908. [Parts II & II by W. M. Coleman]. Ed. 2, reissue of ed. 1, 1909.

Beginners Botany. 208 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1908.

Poems. 21 p. The Cornell Countryman, Ithaca, New York, 1908.

The Training of Farmers. 263 p. The Century Co., New York, 1909.

Manual of Gardening: a practical guide to the making of home grounds and the growing of flowers, fruits, and vegetables for home use. 539 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1910. Ed. 2, 541 p., 1912. Eds 3-11, reissues of ed. 2. Ed. 12, revised, 539 p., 1925, differs in corrections of nomenclature.

The Country-life Movement in the United States. 220 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1911. Reprinted by University of North Carolina Press, 1944.

Farm and Garden rule-book: a manual of ready rules and reference with recipes, precepts, formulas, and tabular information for use of general farmers, gardeners, fruit-growers, stockmen, dairymen, poultrymen, foresters, rural teachers, and others in the United States and Canada. 587 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1911. [Previous editions (1st ed., 1889) published under the title "The horticulturalist’s rule-book)]

Outlook. 11 p. Privately published, Ithaca, New York, 1911.

Report of the Commission on Country Life. 105 p. Sturgis & Walton Co., New York, 1911.

Botany for Secondary Schools: a guide to the knowledge of the vegetable of the neighborhood. 465 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1913. [First published in 1900 as "Botany: an elementary text for schools." The 1913 edition is completely revised.]

York State Rural Problems. Vol. 1, 273 p., 1913; vol. 2, 261 p., 1915. J.B. Lyon Co., Albany, New York.

Ground Levels in Democracy. 95 p. Privately published, Ithaca, New York, 1916.

Wind and Weather. 216 p. Cornell Publishing Co., New York, 1916. [Collected poems.]

The Holy Earth. 177 p. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 1918. Reprinted by the Christian Rural Fellowship, New York, 1943.

Home Grounds, their Planning and Planting. 48 p. American Association of Nurserymen, Harrisburg, Pa., 1918.

What is Democracy? 175 p. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 1918.

Universal Service, the Hope of Humanity. 165 p. Sturgis & Walton Co., New York, 1918.

The School-book of Farming: a text for the elementary schools, homes, and clubs. 388 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1920.

The Nursery-manual: a complete guide to the multiplication of plants. 456 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1920.

The Apple Tree. 117 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1922.

The Cultivated Evergreens: a handbook of the coniferous and most important broad-leaved evergreens planted for ornament in the United States and Canada. 434 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1923.

The Seven Stars. 165 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1923.

Manual of Cultivated Plants: a flora for the identification of the most common or significant species of plants grown in the continental United States and Canada, for food, ornament, utility, and general interest, both in the open and under glass. 851 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1924. [See under 1949 for revised edition.]

The Gardener: a book of brief directions for the growing of the common fruits, vegetables and flowers in the garden and about the house. 260 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1925. [A completely revised version of C. E. Hunn and L. H. Bailey, "The amateur’s practical garden-book..." published in 1900.]

The Harvest of the Year to the Tiller of the Soil. 209 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1927.

The Garden Lover. 154 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1928.

The Cultivated Confiers in North America, comprising the pine family and the taxads: successor to "The cultivated evergreens." 404 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1933.

How Plants get their Names. 209 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1933.

Gardener’s Handbook, successor to "The gardener" brief indications for the growing of common flowers, vegetables and fruits in the garden and about the home. 292 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1934.

The Garden of Gourds, with decorations. 134 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1937.

The Garden of Pinks, with decorations. 142 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1938.

The Garden of Larkspurs, with decorations. 116 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1939.

Manual of Cultivated Plants most commonly grown in the continental United States and Canada. 1,116 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1949. [A completely revised and rewritten revision of the 1924 edition, and prepared by the author with the assistance of the staff of the Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University.]

The Garden of Bellflowers in North America, with decorations. 155 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1953.

Books written under joint authorship

Bailey, L.H., and E. Z. Hortus. A Concise Dictionary of Gardening, general horticulture and cultivated plants in North America. 635 p. The Macmillian Co., New York, 1930.

_______ & _______. Supplement to Hortus, for the five current years including 1930. 655-755p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1935.

_______ & _______. Hortus second; a concise dictionary of gardening, general horticulture and cultivated plants in North America. 778 p. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1941.

Hunn, Charles E. and Bailey, L.H. The Amateur’s Practical Garden-book; containing the simplest directions for the growing of the commonest things about the house and garden. 250 p. The Macmillan Co., New York 1990. Later "editions" are reissues of ed. 1 Ed.8, bears the title "The practical gardent book..." without change of content from the earlier printings, 1913.

Voice Recordings by Liberty Hyde Bailey

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded October 21, 1951. Concerns the origins of the New York State College Agriculture. 1 sound tape reel (50 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4153].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded October 26, 1951. Concerns the Palm book and the trip to the Andros Islands. 1 sound tape reel (70 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4154].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded November 2, 1951. Concerns Bailey's experiences in China and his views on Confuscianism and Buddhism. 1 sound tape reel (60 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4155].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded November 9, 1951. Concerns Bailey's teaching career at Michigan Agricultural College, visits from Cornell President Adams and from Alfred Russell Wallace, Bailey reads from his poetry, tells of his 1898 trip to Europe, fire destroys Cornell's south barn, Bailey gets $800 grant to build greenhouses. on 1 sound tape reel (60 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4156].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded November 9 and 12, 1951. Concerns Isaac Roberts, the Cornell Board of Trustees, beginnings of extension work at Cornell, John W. Spencer, Alice McKloskey, plans for a College of Agriculture, Professor Watson, Lois Wing Burrell, Asa Gray, Latin studies, Alphonso Wood, Basil Harrison, and includes voices of botany graduate students Mr. Stevens and Miss Carter. 1 sound tape reel (50 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4157].

Bailey, L. H.and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded November 30, 1951. Concerns the Cornell president's opposition to agriculture students, Phi Delta Theta, second-class treatment of agriculture faculty Professor Wilder's Swedenborgianism, Cornell's opposition to female professors, typhoid epidemic t Cornell, Wilder's defense of Louis A. Fuentes, the beginnings of extension work at Cornell. 1 sound tape reel (50 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4158].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded November 30, 1951. Concerns the "Nature series" leaflets, his travels in Florida, his work with the Chautauqua circuit, and views on Roman Catholicism. 1 sound tape reel (25 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4159].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded February 14, 1952. Concerns his boyhood, his father, and his college years at Michigan Agricultural College. 1 sound tape reel (25 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4160].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded April 15, 1952. Concerns Asa Gray, palm collecting, publication loss of manuscript in a fire, Alphonso Wood, LHB's chance to go to Wisconsin, Gray's opinions of women working in offices, Serene Watson, and various other reminiscences. 1 sound tape reel (50 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4161].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded June 21, 1952. Concerns boyhood recollections Harvard botanist Asa Gray, and contains a long digression about Cornell and the Hortorium, its staff and the relationships, among them and between the staff and the faculty of the Botany Department. 1 sound tape reel (28 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4162].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded June 22, 1952. Concerns his current state of health, his parents, his trips to Europe and the state of horticulture there, his eyesight, his enemies at Cornell, Chancellor Day's ordering him to leave the Syracuse campus. 1 sound tape reel (60 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono. 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4163].

Bailey, L. H. and Lawrence, George Hill Mathewson. Originally recorded October 10, 1952. Concerns the need for a new book on pruning, Professor Lodeman's background, a recent visit from Durand (with whom he'd travelled in France), current state of the Hortorium, objections to naming the new quarterly "The Baileyum," and a gossipy discussion of the personalities of various professors and administrators at Cornell. 1 sound tape reel (60 min.) 3 3/4 ips, mono 7 in., 1/4 in. tape. [MSU Voice Library, M4164].

Books Written about Liberty Hyde Bailey

Aronovici, D. "Liberty Hyde Bailey" Survey, March 1951.

Bander, N. "91 Years Young," The Cornell Countryman, December 1951.

"Dean Bailey Dies at 96," Ithaca Journal, December 27, 1954.

Dorf, Philip. Liberty Hyde Bailey: an informal biography. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1956.

Knudson, Lewis. "Liberty Hyde Bailey," Cornell Alumni News, November 15m 1944.

_______. "Liberty Hyde Bailey," Science 121(4): 322-323 March 1955..

Knudson, L., Lawrence, G.H.M., and Myers, W. I. "Liberty Hyde Bailey," Necrology of the Faculty [of Cornell University], 1954-1955, Ithaca, NY, 1956.

Lawrence, George H. M. "Liberty Hyde Bailey: 1858-1954," Baileya 26-41.

"Liberty Hyde Bailey," Enclopedia of American Agricultural History. ed. by Edward L. Schapsmeier and Frederick H. Shapsmeier. Greenwood Press, Westport, CN, 1975. p. 31-32.

"Liberty Hyde Bailey, Botanist is Dead," New York Times, December 27, 1954.

Lord, R. "Liberty Hyde Bailey, 87 This Month," Farm Journal, March 1954.

_______. "Liberty Hyde Bailey," The Land, Spring 1945.

MacGregor, A. G. "Liberty Hyde Bailey" in Dictionary of Scientific Biography American Council of Learned Socieites. Charles Scribner & Sons, New York. Vol. 1, ed. Charles Gillispie. p. 395-397.

Mosnat, H. R. "He is your Garden’s Best Friend," Better Homes and Gardens, October 1930.

Rice, J.E. "Early Recollections of Dr. Liberty Hyde Bailey," Cornell Alumni News, May 1, 1948.

Rodgers, III, Andrew Denny. Liberty Hyde Bailey: a Story of American Plant Sciences. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ: 1949.

Rodgers, III, Andrew Denny. "Liberty Hyde Bailey," The American Scholar 20(3):336-340. Summer 1951

Tudury, M. "Keeper of the Land," Country Gentleman, August 1944.

Wing, A.S. "Liberty Hyde Bailey is Ninety Years Young," Nature Magazine, June 1948.

"Words said about a Birthday. An Address in Recognition of the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Natal Day of Liberty Hyde Bailey," [Ithaca, 1948].

Work, P. "Liberty Hyde Bailey" Market Growers Journal, December 1952.