2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



to the task bravely, as one sets out to plow and 

 to fit a prairie domain the boundaries of which are 

 unseen and the promise of which is unknown but 

 to the few. 



For thirty years Professor Roberts and his 

 associates stood for agriculture, always for agri- 

 culture not for natural science under the name 

 of agriculture nor for some pleasant combination 

 of studies that would satisfy the law. In an 

 eastern university, with the great tide of emigra- 

 tion sweeping past him to the West, with decreas- 

 ing values, with old fields, with hindering tradi- 

 tions, he stood, stood like a prophet. 



It is this courage, this steadfastness in the de- 

 termination to hold the field for agriculture, that 

 grows larger in my estimation as the years 

 go by. I speak of his work in the past tense, 

 for I too look backward ; but I am glad that he is 

 still keen to follow the result of his labors. It was 

 not then a day for erudition, or for high technical 

 scholarship, but a time for clear faith, homely and 

 direct relations with the people, wisdom in giving 

 advice. From the first years that I knew him he 

 was a philosopher and a forecaster, always prac- 

 tical, always driving home the point, always with 

 his feet squarely on the ground. 



