The President Who Planted the Future

This Week In Ag #152

“No other human occupation opens such a wide field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture.”

This wasn’t just eloquent prose orated along a campaign trail by a politician who would become the most quoted man in US history. It was a vision for America.

Before he was a rail-splitter, a country lawyer, the Great Emancipator and a figure worthy of immortality on Mount Rushmore, Abraham Lincoln worked on his family farm while growing up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

He witnessed first-hand the impact that a recent invention of a fellow Illinoisan — a blacksmith named John Deere — had on releasing the potential of the rich prairie soil. Deere’s steel plow would go on to tame the prairie, and in doing so, would unlock some of our richest natural treasures. Agriculture was clearly a key to transforming this young nation. Perhaps that’s what inspired him to say:

“No community whose every member possesses this art (of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil) can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms. Such a  community will be alike independent of crowned-kings, money-kings and land-kings.”

As a farmer himself, Honest Abe knew that for America to realize this vision, we must create an environment for American agriculture to thrive.

Lincoln established the United States Department of Agriculture in 1862. This provided the resources and focus for “putting the soil to the top of its capacity – producing the largest crop possible from a given quantity of ground.” His commitment to improving ag research and education included the Morrill Act that established land-grant universities, using public lands, to teach agriculture and mechanical arts. His famous Homestead Act provided 160 acres of the public domain to any American or prospective citizen who was the head of a family or over 21 years of age. These homesteaders gained ownership of the property after residing on it for five years and making improvements on it

On Thursday, we celebrate the 218th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. In describing his upbringing, he proudly stated, “I was raised to farm work.” And for that, Mr. President, we’re eternally grateful.