Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White, had little enthusiasm for agricultural education, and the Board of Trustees were likewise without much enthusiasm. Agriculture could not be ignored, however, because Ezra Cornell was deeply committed, and the provisions of the Morrill Land Grant Act required it. After much difficulty, George Chapman Caldwell was recruited in 1867 as Professor of Chemistry (Agricultural Chemistry). He was the very first professor of what was to become the Cornell University. The university opened in September 1868 with professor Caldwell, the nominal leader of a group of three professors with interests touching upon agriculture. In addition to Caldwell, there was Albert N. Prentiss, professor of botany (with some reference to crops), and Dr. James Law, professor of veterinary medicine. The Faculty of Agriculture consisted of this informal group of three and a professor of agriculture of the moment. The arrival of Isaac P. Roberts, as professor of agriculture, from Iowa Agricultural College, in 1874, finally brought credibility to agriculture at Cornell. During the period of 1879–1887, Cornell president Charles Kendall Adams gradually changed the Trustees seemingly hostility toward agriculture. In June 1888, the "informal" departments, including agriculture taught by Isaac Roberts,
agricultural chemistry taught by George Caldwell, botany taught by Albert Prentiss, entomology taught by Henry Comstock, and veterinary medicine taught by James Law, were combined to form the Cornell College of Agriculture. Established in 1874 as the Department of Agriculture, the department became a college in 1888. Also in June 1888, horticulture, which had played a minor role in botany until it was discontinued by the trustees in 1880, was reestablished as an independent department in the college, upon the recruitment of Liberty Hyde Bailey as professor and department head. Roberts was appointed Director of the college and dean of its faculty while retaining his role as professor of agriculture and heading a department of agriculture within the college of the same name.
Establishment of the New York State College of Agriculture In 1904, eminent botanist and horticulturist
Liberty Hyde Bailey, along with New York State farmers, convinced the New York Legislature to financially support the agriculture college. Legislation establishing the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell passed the state legislature and was signed by the governor in May 1904. The legislation passed in spite of ″violent″ opposition and intense lobbying led by Chancellor James Roscoe Day of Syracuse University acting for Syracuse and six other universities and colleges in New York. The college made discoveries and disseminated results from other schools, especially regarding insect control, fertilizers, breeding, veterinary medicine, cultivation, and farm management. ,
Roberts Hall, and
East Roberts Hall were the first buildings of the New York State College of Agriculture The legislation provided $125,000 for the construction of a new building for the college. Named for dean Isaac P. Roberts, Kennedy-Roberts Hall was built in 1989 to replace Roberts-Stone Halls. The college changed its name from the New York State College of Agriculture to the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1971.
Absorbing the College of Forestry In 1898, the State Legislature established a separate
New York State College of Forestry at Cornell. However, the school ran into political controversy, and the Governor vetoed its annual appropriation in 1903. In 1910, Liberty Hyde Bailey, the Dean of Cornell's Agriculture College, succeeded in having what remained of the Forestry College transferred to his school. At his request, in 1911, the legislature appropriated $100,000 to construct a building to house the new Forestry Department on the Cornell campus, which Cornell later named
Fernow Hall. That Forestry Department continues today as the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. In 1927, Cornell established a 1,639-acre (6.63 km2) research forest south of Ithaca, the Arnot Woods.
Home economics In 1900, the college began offering a reading course for farm women. In 1907, the Department of Home Economics was created within college. In 1919, the Department of Home Economics became a school within the Agriculture College. Finally, in 1925, the Home Economics department became
a separate college, although both colleges continued to work together to provide cooperative extension services. ==Notable alumni==