“I know of no pursuit in life in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s care.” – President George Washington
“It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance.” – President George Washington
“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds.” – President Thomas Jefferson
“Every man is proud of what he does well…..his heart is in his work and he will do twice as much of it with less fatigue….The man who produces a good, full crop will scarcely ever let any part of it go to waste. He will gather it in due season and store it in perfect security.” – President Abraham Lincoln
“This leads to the further reflection, that no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture. I know of nothing so pleasant to the mind, as the discovery of anything which is at once new andvaluable — nothing which 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 profitable enjoyment.” – President Abraham Lincoln, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859
“The fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use. Forest protection is not an end of itself, it is a means to increase and sustain the resources of our country and the industries which depend on them. We have to see clearly that whatever destroys the forest, except to make way for agriculture, threatens our well-being.” – President Theodore Roosevelt
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (February 26, 1937)
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Our farmers deserve praise, not condemnation; and their efficiency should be cause for gratitude, not something for which they are penalized.” – President John F. Kennedy
Ian Heatwole reminded us of this at our Richmond seminar last week… “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.” – President John F. Kennedy
“Before I do, may I just take a moment to congratulate you? Once again, you’re making something look easy that would be considered a miracle almost anywhere else in the world. Farmers all over America are harvesting record crops. You know, I’ve always thought that when we Americans get up in the morning, when we see bacon, eggs, toast, and milk on our breakfast table, we should give thanks that our farmers are survivors. You are the real miracle workers of the modern world—keepers of an incredible system based on faith, freedom, hard work, productivity, and profit—a system that feeds us and sustains millions of the world’s hungry.” – President Ronald Reagan Radio Address to the Nation on Agriculture and Grain Exports October 15, 1982
Please comment below if you find any additional quotes from Presidents about agriculture.
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