Franklin Hiram King (8 June 1848 – 4 August 1911) was an American agricultural scientist who was born on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin, attended country schools, and received his professional training first at Whitewater State Normal School, graduating in 1872, and then at Cornell University.

[1] King is now best remembered for his first-hand account of traditional agricultural practices in Asia, now regarded as an organic farming classic text.

Interested in a wide range of subjects throughout his career, King made major contributions during these years in research and teaching that dealt with applications of physics to agriculture.

[4] King returned to Madison, where he devoted the last seven years of his life to summarizing earlier findings and conducting further research in agricultural physics, including the ventilation of farm buildings.

It has been described by Lord Northbourne—the founder of organic agriculture—as a "classic" which "no student of farming or social science can afford to ignore".