Our Founding Farmers

On this Fourth Day of July we celebrate the independence of our great country, and I truly do believe it is a great country.  I believe we owe the freedoms that we have today to our founding fathers who built this country out of a desire for freedom and liberty.  In honor of this great day I just want to leave you with some quotes from our "Founding Farmers".

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens.  They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands" -Thomas Jefferson

"The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts.  I must study politics and war, that our sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.  Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." -John Adams (if this doesn't speak to the importance of agriculture I don't know what does)

"Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man." -George Washington

"There seem to be three ways for a nation to acquire wealth.  The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their neighbors.  This is robbery.  The second by commerce, which is generally cheating.  The third is by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as reward for his innocent life and virtuous industry." -Benjamin Franklin

Some Quotes for The Weekend

A busy week, followed by a busy weekend now, and a busy week coming up means a short blog posts. I just thought I would throw out a couple of quotes that I have heard recently and a few that I came across this week while doing some research. Living in the heart of Iowa means that I live in the heart of farm land so I am surrounded by friends, family, and neighbors who are farmers or are closely related to farmers. With that being said here are a few things that I have heard lately:

Friend - "You getting into farming?" Me - "Yep." Friend - "I've got some advice for you then ... DON'T!"

"You aren't a farmer, farmers have lots of land, combines, huge tractors, and all that kind of stuff." (Okay, this may be partly true ... I'm more pastor than farmer)

"Do you know that there isn't any money if farming? Remember the late 70's and early 80's"

"It's not natural to only feed cattle grass."

"You don't give your cows corn ... what are you, one of those organic freaks?"

I could go on and on with this sort of stuff, but I know many of you have heard the same lines before. This kind of stuff just roles off of me like rain on the roof and I'm even beginning to find it somewhat funny. It is like the people that always come up to us and say, "Wow, your kid is good now, but just wait a year." They have been saying that for four years and so far their proclamations have not come to fruition. Remember, things don't have to be the way they are for everyone else!

Here are some encouraging quotes to leave you with:

"Trade increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land." -William Pitt

"I know of no pursuit 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 cares." -George Washington

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." -Daniel Webster

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural." -Thomas Jefferson