LINCOLN S VIEW OF AGRICULTURE
PERCY had listened without interrupting, grieved at her
disappointment, and open to any reasoning that might change his
mind.
"Mother dearest," he said, "it was a year ago that you said I would
have only till this fail to decide upon my college course and that
it should be a special preparation for my life work. I have given
much thought to it. You said that I should choose for myself, and I
have not consulted much with others, but I have tried to consider
the matter from different points of view.
"You know the Christmas present you gave me of the Lincoln books?"
"Yes, I know, and you have read them so much. I could not get you
many books, but I knew there could be nothing better for my boy to
read than the thoughts of that noble man. But, Percy dear, Lincoln
was a lawyer, and he rose from the lowest walk in life to the
highest position in the country, and with much less preparation than
my own boy will have. Suppose he had remained a farmer! Surely no
such success could ever have been reached. I am not so foolish as to
have any such high hopes for you. Percy; but if you can only put
yourself in the way of opportunity; and make such preparation as you
can to fill with credit some position of responsibility that may be
offered you! I had truly hoped that your study of Lincoln's life
would influence yours. To me Lincoln was the noblest of all the
noble men of our history, and I doubt not of all history, save Him
who came to redeem the world."
Percy stepped to his little homemade bookcase and took a volume from
the Lincoln set.
"May I read you some words of Lincoln?" he asked.
"Oh yes," she answered wonderingly.
"On September 30th, 1859," said Percy, "Lincoln gave an address at
Milwaukee, before the State Agricultural Society of Wisconsin, and
of all the addresses of Lincoln it seems to me that this is the
greatest, because it deals with the greatest material problem of the
United States. I think I have scarcely heard a public address in
which the speaker has not dwelt upon the fact that the farmer must
feed and clothe the world; and it seems to me that the missionaries
always speak of the famines and starvation of so many people in
India and other old countries. Do you remember the lecture by the
medical missionary? Well, would it not he better to send
agricultural missionaries to India and China to teach those people
how to raise crops?
"I have read and reread this address more than any other in the
Lincoln set. Let me read you some of the paragraphs I have marked.
"After making some introductory remarks about the value of
agricultural fairs, Lincoln began his address as follows:
"'I presume I am not expected to employ the time assigned me in the
mere flattery of the farmers as a class. My opinion of them is that,
in proportion to numbers, they are neither better nor worse than
other people. In the nature of things they are more numerous than
any other class; and I believe there are really more attempts at
flattering them than any other, the reason of which I cannot
perceive, unless it be that they can cast more votes than any other.
On reflection, I am not quite sure that there is not cause of
suspicion against you in selecting me, in some sort a politician and
in no sort a farmer, to address you.
"'But farmers being the most numerous class, it follows that their
interest is the largest interest. It also follows that that interest
is most worthy of all to be cherished and cultivated--that if there
be inevitable conflict between that interest and any other, that
other should yield.
"'Again, I suppose that it is not expected of me to impart to you
much specific information on agriculture. You have no reason to
believe, and do not believe, that I possess it; if that were what
you seek in this address, any one of your own number or class would
be more able to furnish it. You, perhaps, do expect me to give some
general interest to the occasion, and to make some general
suggestions on practical matters. I shall attempt nothing more. And
in such suggestions by me, quite likely very little will be new to
you, and a large part of the rest will be possibly already known to
be erroneous.
"'My first suggestion is an inquiry as to the effect of greater
thoroughness in all the departments of agriculture than now prevails
in the Northwest--perhaps I might say in America. To speak entirely
within bounds, it is known that fifty bushels of wheat, or one
hundred bushels of Indian corn, can be produced from an acre.'"
Percy paused: "You know, Mother, that our corn has averaged some
less than fifty bushels per acre for the last five years, and, as
you say, the lower field has been much better than the old land, and
I think you are quite right in your belief that as an average the
land is growing poorer, although we cultivate better than we used to
do, and our seed corn is of the best variety and saved with much
care. But let me read further:
"'Less than a year ago I saw it stated that a man, by extraordinary
care and labor, had produced of wheat what was equal to two hundred
bushels from an acre. But take fifty of wheat, and one hundred of
corn, to be the possibility, and compare it with the actual crops of
the country. Many years ago I saw it stated, in a patent office
report, that eighteen bushels was the average crop throughout the
United States; and this year an intelligent farmer of Illinois
assured me that he did not believe the land harvested in that State
this season had yielded more than an average of eight bushels to the
acre; much was cut, and then abandoned as not worth threshing, and
much was abandoned as not worth cutting."'
"I know it is true," said the mother, "that wheat was once very much
grown in Central and Northern Illinois, but 1859 must have been an
unusually poor year, for it was grown for twenty years after that,
although it finally failed so completely that its cultivation has
been practically abandoned in those sections for nearly twenty
years. However, the chinch bugs were a very important factor in
discouraging wheat growing and the land has been very good for corn,
especially since the tile-drainage was put in; but on the whole is
it not as I told you?"
"But note these statements," said Percy, turning again to the book:
"'It is true that heretofore we have had better crops with no better
cultivation, but I believe that it is also true that the soil has
never been pushed up to one-half of its capacity.
"'What would be the effect upon the farming interest to push the
soil up to something near its full capacity?'"
"But what can he mean," said the mother. "How can anyone do better
than we have done? We change our crops, and sow clover with the
oats, and return as much as we can to the land. But let me hear
further what Lincoln said:"
"Yes, Mother, this is what he said:
"'Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels of
wheat from an acre than it will to produce ten bushels from the same
acre; but will it take more labor to produce fifty bushels from one
acre than from five? Unquestionably thorough cultivation will
require more labor to the acre; but will it require more to the
bushel? If it should require just as much to the bushel, there are
some probable, and several certain, advantages in favor of the
thorough practice. It is probable it would develop those unknown
causes which of late years have cut down our crops below their
former average. It is almost certain, I think, that by deeper
plowing, analysis of the soils, experiments with manures and
varieties of seeds, observance of seasons, and the like, these
causes would be discovered and remedied. It is certain that thorough
cultivation would spare half, or more than half, the cost of land,
simply because the same produce would be got from half, or from less
than half, the quantity of land. This proposition is self-evident,
and can be made no plainer by repetitions or illustrations. The cost
of land is a great item, even in new countries, and it constantly
grows greater and greater, in comparison with other items, as the
country grows older.'"
Percy paused and said: "If I understand correctly these words of
Lincoln, the land need not become poor. But I do not know why land
becomes poor. I do not know what the soil contains, nor do I know
what corn is made of. We plow the ground and plant the seed and
cultivate and harvest the crop, but I do not know what the corn
crop, or any crop, takes from the soil. I want to learn how to
analyze the soil and crop and to find out, if possible, why soils
become poor, in order, as Lincoln suggests, that the cause may be
discovered and remedied."
"It may be that the college professors could teach you in that way,"
said the mother, "but you know the farm life is so full of work and
so empty of mental culture."
"I used to think so too," said Percy, "but I fear we have worked too
much with our hands and too little with our minds; that we have done
much work in blindness as to the actual causes that control our crop
yields; and that we have not found the mental culture that may be
found in the farm life. Let me read again. These are Lincolns words:
"'No other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable
and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as
agriculture. I know nothing so pleasant to the mind as the discovery
of anything that is at once new and valuable--nothing that so
lightens and sweetens toil as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery.
And how vast and how varied a field is agriculture for such
discovery! The mind, already trained to thought in the country
school, or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaustless
source of enjoyment. Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce
two where there was but one is both a profit and a pleasure. And not
grass alone. but soils, seeds, and seasons--hedges, ditches, and
fences--draining, droughts, and irrigation--plowing, hoeing, and
harrowing--reaping, mowing, and threshing--saving crops, pests of
crops, diseases of crops, and what will prevent or cure
them--implements, utensils, and machines, their relative merits, and
how to improve them--hogs, horses, and cattle--sheep, goats and
poultry--trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers--the thousand
things of which these are specimens--each a world of study within
itself.
"'In all this book learning is available. A capacity and taste for
reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by
others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved
problems. And not only so; it gives a relish and facility for
successfully pursuing the unsolved ones. The rudiments of science
are available, and highly available. Some knowledge of botany
assists in dealing with the vegetable world--with all growing crops.
Chemistry assists in the analysis of soils, selection and
application of manures, and in numerous other ways. The mechanical
branches of natural philosophy are ready help in almost everything,
but especially in reference to implements and machinery.
"'The thought recurs that education--cultivated thought--can best be
combined with agricultural labor, on the principle of thorough work;
that careless, half-performed, slovenly work makes no place for such
combination; and thorough work, again, renders sufficient the
smallest quantity of ground to each man; and this, again, conforms
to what must occur in a world less inclined to wars and more devoted
to the arts of peace than heretofore. Population must increase
rapidly, more rapidly than in former times, and ere long the most
valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable
subsistence from the smallest area of soil. No community whose every
member possesses this art, can ever be the victim of oppression in
any of its forms. Such community will be alike independent of
crowned kings, money kings, and land kings.'"