Freedom of Choice: how John Adams and Justin Morrill made the dream of choosing your life's work a reality.

The story of the colleges that teach agriculture in our country is virtually unknown among the common American. But it wasn’t always so. It was for the common American of the 1860’s that the states were offered the opportunity to establish them, and it was a major undertaking that was widely talked about and even debated over.

The story began with a common man, Justin Morrill a merchant’s clerk from Maine. Morill was a dynamic person who never got a formal education, but was an avid reader and seeker of knowledge. He became an expert in multiple subjects and was a hard worker. He had saved up enough money to retire to a farm in his home town of Vermont by the age of 38. He was recruited by the Whigg party to go to Washington as a congressman and promote his ideas on education for the common man. He wanted to provide opportunities for people like himself and his family that never had the chance to be formally educated. He saw the disparity between American farmers and those in Belgium who had better land management practices that made their land more fertile and productive. He also saw that most of the people of the country were the working farmers and they were the least likely to have those opportunities. During the civil war the politics favored the passage of his land grant college bill and Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Morill Act of 1862. It was a bold move combining the transfer of federal lands to the states in order to fund new or existing colleges in the pursuit of knowledge related to agriculture and mechanical engineering.  

This act opened up new opportunities that were never before available to the common laborer and put the pursuit of knowledge on the practical matters of farming and mechanics into the scientific relm, which has propelled our nation to prosperity.

This fulfilled founding father John Adams dream that those who came after him would have opportunities to have the freedom to engage in other studies that were not his leisure to explore. He knew his work was to establish the nation so posterity could have greater expectations:

“The Science of Government it is my Duty to study, more than all other  Sciences: the Art of Legislation and Administration and Negotiation, ought to take Place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other Arts. I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.” Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, post 12 May 1780

I believe his wish has been realized many times over and the nation has overflowed with such abundance on knowledge on so many subjects, we have outstripped any expectation of the founders. The freedom connection here is that knowledge makes us free. The knowledge of human nature, religion, political economy, classical literature, music, math, and the natural world that are especially effective at opening up the mind the fertility that Justin Morrill and the founders displayed. Just like the freedom that the slaves received by the end of the civil war, the common people had received a gift to change their station through learning and choose their career as John Adams foretold.

America loves cotton t-shirts.

Have you thanked your cotton farmer?

Most of the cotton in the world is produced in China (6.9 metric tons) and India (6.6 metric tons)  with the US next (2.8 metric tons)¹. In America, cotton seed for planting is produced in high tech labs, genetically modified with bacteria genes to be more resistant to herbicides.  It is mostly grown in pockets in Texas, California, the southern Mississippi valley and several southern states. Most of the farms are very large and the harvesting is done by GPS guided machines. Technological improvements since the 1950’s have increased the yield per acre threefold. Cotton is the number one value added product produced in America and is the most used fiber in the world.²

After harvesting and ginning, American cotton is sent to other countries that have lower wage workers for processing. Many of shirts made end up back in America for retail sale.³

Farmers see about sixty cents (10%) of the money that comes from retail sale of a $6 shirt. ³  Since cotton needs a lot of processing to make it useful, that amount is more reasonable than some other farm products. Being the number one fiber used worldwide, cotton, and cotton farmers are very important to our economy and daily living. Without cotton farms, there would be no cotton towels, t-shirts, jeans, underwear, sheets, blankets, couches, cotton balls, q-tips, bandages, and on and on. Suffice it to say, our lives would be very different and quite a bit less comfortable without it.

Thanks to all our hard working cotton farmers and everyone else who makes cotton t-shirts et al possible!

1.       Cotton - Production by top countries 2014 | Statistic (Statista)

http://www.statista.com/statistics/263055/cotton-production-worldwide-by-top-countries/

2.       The Story of Cotton (National Cotton Council)

https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/story/upload/The-Story-of-Cotton-Hi-Res-642k-PDF.pdf

3.       COTTON: Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt (Parts 1-5) (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYa4zneKbeY  

My Farming Heritage

I have strong roots in agriculture, but my parents were not connected directly to any type of farming. They did not believe it was a good way to go because of bad experiences their parents had, but they did not know the heritage they enjoyed because of the influence of farming on the character of their forebearers.

My grandmother (mother’s mother) grew up on a farm and her husband taught agriculture on the college level. My grandfather on my father’s side also grew up farming, but later became an insurance salesman.

My mother’s mother is named Norma, and she had many experiences on her father’s farm in Southern Alberta, Canada in the 1920’s and 30’s. They were sheep herders and they raised grain. Their farm was close to town and they could see the lights, but it was still rural. They lived there in the summer and had a house in town where they would spend their winters. Norma said she remembered her mother was wondering what she could cook for supper one summer afternoon. Just then, she saw a prairie chicken out the kitchen door. She got her .22 long rifle and shot it right there. Her mother said she must have hit it in just the right place because all of the feathers came off. Norma loved living there. She was very young, so she did not have a large portion of the work, but she does remember herding sheep and riding horses everywhere they went. Her father hired men to watch the sheep and they called it the sheep camp. She remembers the hired men had a phonograph and would play records for Norma and her sister.

Norma’s father bought a new threshing machine and a truck that was going to help him a lot on the farm. It was 1929 and when the stock market crash hit, his loans for the new machines came due immediately. He was not able to pay, so he sold half of the farm and the farm buildings including their house to raise cash and pay the debt. They always lived in town after that and eventually they let their relatives graze their animals on it when her father found other work.

The depression was a hard time and was part of the reason my family is no longer farming. The other major reason was, after the depression, money making careers off the farm increased, as farming became more and more productive and our country became more wealthy. There were fewer farmers needed to do the same work, and many farmers, including my family left their farms.

But today, with the local food movement, many of these more efficient methods are being laid aside for more natural methods. I support the choice to buy higher quality food that is grown by more natural means and love the idea of doing something similar to what my family did generations ago. I am grateful to my Farming ancestors for their sacrifice and I would like to live the sort of life they lived, working fields and raising animals in the wild of the open land.

Quoting Franklin

Today's topic is Poor Richard's Almanac

What is an almanac? It is simply a guide on how to farm well. Mostly it is instructions on when to plant and harvest based on seasonal weather predictions and celestial cycles. It also may contain other useful or interesting information. Poor Richard's Almanac was authored and published by Benjamin Franklin for 25 years. Poor Richard was a pseudonem taken from his brother James's alminac titled "Poor Robin's Alminac" and Richard Saunders, English editor of Apollo Angilcanus.

One reason Franklin's alminac was so popular was the sayings that Franklin included in the empty spaces on the calendar pages. Many of these sayings are still used today and all of them contain either wit, wisdom or charm that piques interest for more.

The majority of colonialists of Franklin's time were farmers and there was much to be gained by making accurate predictions on weather and other important dates to plant or harvest. Franklin stated himself in the publication of his 20th year that the popular sentiment was that his alminac predictions were accurate. Alminacs combine the useful and the entertaining together in one publication. Interestingly, alminacs of his day printed Christian teachings alongside occult teachings (and astrology). Because alminacs were a sort of melting pot of that which is useful, religeous, mystical, and ethical and even literary, it fits into several of genres. But the main impact Poor Richards has had overall has been to instill Franklin's brand of wit into our culture that has survived to this day. Here are some examples:

God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fees.

Don't throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are glass.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

A countryman between 2 Lawyers, is like a fish between two cats.

Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days.

Well done is better than well said.

He's a Fool that makes his Doctor his Heir.

If you would reap Praise you must sow the Seeds, Gentle Words and useful Deeds.

Eat to live, and not live to eat.

He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.

The rotten Apple spoils his Companion.

He's a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

If thou hast wit & learning, add to it Wisdom and Modesty.

Haste makes Waste.


I can imagine that this kind of thinking helped young farmers keep focus on good goals, hard work and to stay away from shysters, thus increasing freedom in America.

Farming is a prerequisite to freedom.

But we don't think about how important it is and most of the time we hardly think about it at all. This simple act has had profound effects on American politics and culture. The idea of being free is historically tied to the idea of an inheritance of land during the middle ages of Europe, which is an idea that has been lost in America. We have come a long way from our roots for owning and working the land was the most common occupation of the first European settlers of our country. A combination of influences lead to the unique perspective and work ethic of the people of America which lead to her becoming a beacon of freedom to the world. These included strong ethics and religious belief, good literature, hard work, and the rejection of the noble class as the brain trust of the people.