The "Bountiful Earth" allegory honors horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey, who in 1885 organized the nation's first department of horticulture and landscape gardening at Michigan State Agricultural College. In 1888 he moved to Cornell University, where he organized the New York State College of Agriculture and introduced extension courses in horticulture to farmers. Following retirement in 1913, he established the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium at Cornell, which is devoted to the study and the classification and identification of cultivated plants.