The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-02-05
LINCOLN ON
AGRICULTURE
GREAT WAR PRESIDENT GAVE AN
ADDRESS YEARS AGO ON AeRI.
CULTURE WHICH WILL BE
READ WITH INTEREST BY THE
PRESENT GENERATION.

The following is an extract from an
address delivered by Abraham Lincoln
at Milwaukee, Wis, Sept. 80, 1853:
"Unquestionably II will take more
labor to produce fifty bushels Of wheat
from an acre than 1t will to produce
ten bushels from the same acre; but
will 1t take more labor to produce fifty
bushels from one acre than from FIVE?
Unouestionably thorough cultivation
will require more labor to the acre;
but will it require more to the bushel?
II 1t should require just as much to the
bushel, there are some probable and
several certain, advantages in favor
Of the thorough practice. 1t is prob
able it would develop those unknown
causes which of late years have cut
down u crops below their former ay-
erage. 1t Is almost certain. / think,
that by deeper blowing, analysis of
the soils. experiments with manures
and varieties Of seeds, observance of
seasons and the like, these causes
would be discovered and remedied. 1t
is certain that thorough cultivation
would spare half, or more than hall,
the cost Of the land, simply because
the product could be got from half, or
from less than half, the quantity of
land. This proposition is self evident.
and can be made no palmer by repeti-
ton or illustrations. The cost of land
Is a great item, even In new countries,
and 1t constantly grows greater and
greater, in comparison with other
items. as the country grows older.
NO other human occupation opens
so wide a field for the profitable and
agreeable combination Of labor with
cultivated thought, as agriculture. /
know nothing so pleasant to the mind
as the discovery of anything that is at
once new n Misunderstanding SO
lightens and sweetens toll as the hope
full pursuit of such, discovery. And
how vast and how varied a field is &
riculture for such a discovery! The
mind already trained to thought in the
country school, or higher school,. can
not fail to and there an .exhaustless
source of enjoyment. Every blade of
grass is a study; and to produce two
blades where there was but one is both
a profit and a pleasure. And not grass
alone, but soils, seeds and seasons
hedges, bitches, DEMONSTRATING
droughts and irrigation-plowing, hoe
ing .and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, moving
and threshing-saving crops, pests of
crops, diseases of crops--implements,
utensils and machines and their rel
ative2 merits, and, howa+o 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 availa-
bic. A capacity and taste for read
ing gives access to whatever has been
discovered by others 1t is the key,
on one OF the keys, to the already
solved problems. And not only so. It
gives relish and facility for success
fully pursuing the unsolved ones The
rudiments Of science are available, and
highly. available. Some knowledge of
botany assists in dealing with the veg
etable world-with all growing crops.
Chemistry assists in the analysis of
the soils, selection and application of
manures and in numerous other ways.
The mechanical branches Of natural
philosophy, are ready to help In al
AhSSA SNSty GiAlSS Especially III ISLC4
ences to implements and machinery.
THE thought occurs that education
cultivated thought-can best be
combined with agricultural labor per-
formed on the principle of thorough
work; that careless. half performed,
slovenly work makes no places for
such combination; and thorough work,
again, renders sufficient the smallest
quantity of ground to each man, and
this again conforms to what must oc-
cur in a world less inclined to wars
and more devoted to the arts OF peace
than heretofore Population must in
crease rapidlN 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 pos
sesses this art, can ever be the victim
| Of oppression in any OF its forms.
Such community will be alike inde-
pendent OF crowned kings, money
kings and land kings