author
Isaac Phillips Roberts
1833–1928
A pioneering agricultural educator, this farm-born teacher helped shape Cornell’s early agriculture program and wrote vividly about rural life, practical farming, and the making of modern agricultural education.
1 Audiobook
The farmstead: The making of the rural home and the lay-out of the farm (5th edition)
by Isaac Phillips Roberts
About the author
Born in East Varick, New York, on July 24, 1833, Isaac Phillips Roberts grew up on a farm and carried that hands-on knowledge into a long career in agricultural teaching and writing. He joined Cornell University in 1873 as professor of agriculture, later became the first director of its College of Agriculture, and retired as professor emeritus in 1903.
Roberts wrote for readers who cared about the real work of farming. His books include The Fertility of the Land, Feeding Farm Animals, and The Farmstead, works that focused on soil, livestock, and practical farm management. He also wrote Autobiography of a Farm Boy, a personal account that looks back on 19th-century farm life in New York and the Midwest and on the effort to build a serious agricultural college.
He died in San Francisco on March 17, 1928. Today, he is remembered not only as an author, but as an important early voice in American agricultural education—someone who connected everyday farm experience with the growing science of agriculture.