At the left is a heretofore un- 

 published picture of Abraham Lin- 

 coln. (A reprint of this picture suit- 

 able for framing vrill be sent on 

 receipt of 20c in stamps.) 



It is the artist's conception of 

 how the President appeared after a 

 trip behind the lines of the Union 

 Army in Virginia early in the Civil 

 War. The Union Army had met one 

 discouraging defeat after another 

 by General Lee, the Confederate 

 commander. Finally President Lin- 

 coln relieved General loseph Hooker 

 of his command of the Army of the 

 Potomac and gave it to General 

 George G. Meade. General Meade 

 later pursued Lee with such vigor 

 that he forced the Confederates to 

 turn and fight at Gettysburg. The 

 battle resulted in a decisive victory 

 for the Federal troops. 



In this picture Lincoln is seen as 

 a discouraged man. He had paused 

 to rest in a cabin near the battle 

 lines and was thinking over his 

 tremendous responsibilities, won- 

 dering perhaps whether he had 

 mode a wise choice in putting 

 Meade in command. 



Auditing Association Meets 



Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 26. — How 14 

 years of careful, systematic audits have con- 

 tributed to the success of the cooperative 

 movement among Illinois farmers was re- 

 lated here today to 500 directors and man- 

 agers of cooperatives who attended the 15th 

 annual meeting of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Auditing Association. 



Manager Fred E. Ringham of Chicago 

 reported that a total of 431 audits were 

 completed for the 342 member cooperatives. 



"Through the auditing service, farmers' 

 investments in coojjerative business ventures 

 have been safeguarded, and information has 

 been made available to managers and direc- 

 tors as a basis for planning Dudgets, form- 

 ulating policies and controlling operating 

 practices," Ringham said. "Such a service 

 is essential for success under the complicated 

 and highly-competitive conditions that con- 

 front business today." 



Based on conservative estimates, the 

 amount of business transacted by the coip- 

 panies audited by the Association last year 

 totals at least fifty million dollars per year, 

 Ringham reported. The Association has six 

 full-time senior auditors assisted by extra 

 auditors during the rush periods. Branch 

 offices are maintained at Springfield, Gales- 

 burg and Champaign. Member organiza- 

 tions include County Farm Bureaus, County 

 Home Bureaus, cooperative farmers' eleva- 

 tors, livestock marketing associations, co- 

 operative creameries and milk producers' 

 associations, farm supply companies, mutual 

 insurance companies and others. 



"The Illinois Agricultural Auditing Asso- 

 ciation has contributed much to the success 

 of most of the successful farmers' co-opera- 

 tives in the state," J. H. Lloyd, State Direc- 

 tor of Agriculture said. 



The Illinois Cooperative Act was amended 

 in 1931 to permit the dissolution of co- 

 operatives that failed to submit annual re- 

 ports to the state department. There is 

 need for another amendment which would 



(Continued on page 33) 



G. Washington 



(Continued from page 29) 



and legumes. For home consumption he 

 also raised flax and the early diaries 

 mention hemp, but not cotton. 



The popular conception is that George 

 Washington was primarily a planter. 

 This is not true. He was an extensive 

 livestock raiser for that time. The estate 

 carried large herds of cattle, including 

 the oxen that did the plowing, harrowing 

 and other heavy work. A dairy was 

 operated separately from the farms, but 

 this barely furnished enough butter for 

 home use. He had a very substantial 

 flock of sheep and a great many hogs 

 that were allowed to run at large in the 

 woodland. In 1799 his manager valued 

 his entire livestock at nearly $35,000. 



It required approximately 300 people 

 to operate Washington's estate, most of 

 whom were slaves who were treated 

 kindly by their master. 



Washington believed in making the 

 farm pay its way. He was practical. One 

 of his standing orders to the farm man- 

 ager was to "buy nothing you can make 

 within yourselves." Most of the things 

 the plantation could not produce were 

 ordered yearly from Great Britain, and 

 after the annual delivery of the bills, the 

 estate could look for little outside help. 

 Nearly everything was bought in yearly 

 supplies. "The system compelled each 

 plantation to be a little world unto itself. 



Washington was always land hungry. 

 He added various tracts to the original 

 estate until before his death he owned 

 some 8,000 acres divided into five farms 

 and woodlands. He also carried on fish- 

 eries, a ferry and a flour mill attached to 

 his holdings. 



Washington, the planter, was bom to 

 the single crop system of farming, tobac- 

 co. The rank growth of this plant soon 

 exhausted the land and compelled aban- 

 donment of the worked lands and clear- 

 ings of new fields to be in turn sub- 

 jected to nature's ravages. Destructive 

 farming was the rule; conservation was 

 unknown. 



Washington was far ahead of his time 

 as a farmer. He recognized the national 

 danger in continual soil depletion and 

 abandonment. While he was practical, 

 he was also interested in everything new 

 in agriculture. His diaries are full of his 

 experiments ; tests of plowing and ditch- 

 ing; tests of a variety of seeds in various 

 soils and combination of fertilizers; tests 

 of treatment of seeds before planting. 

 He was a horticulturist and was familiar 

 with grafting on apple trees. He carried 

 on breeding experiments with his live- 

 stock, and was interested in new inven- 

 tions to lighten farm labor. 



Most of Washington's interest in 

 farming was developed after his service 

 in the war, although at that time he 

 deplored the necessity of being away 

 from his plantation. While in the army 

 he wrote: "To sf>eak within bounds, ten 

 thousand pounds (approximately $50,- 

 000) will not compensate the losses I 

 might have avoided by being at home 

 and attending a little to my own con- 

 cerns." 



He was modest about his abilities as 

 a farmer. On one occasion he said: "I 

 never possessed much skill in the art; 

 and nine years' total inattention to it, 

 has added nothing to a knowledge which 

 is best understood from practice." 



To a contemporary farmer he wrote: 

 "I think with you that the life of the 

 husbandman of all others is most delect- 

 able. It is honorable, it is amusing, and, 

 with judicious management, it is profit- 

 able. To see plants rise from the earth 

 and flourish by the sufserior skill and 

 bounty of the laborer fills a contempla- 

 tive mind with ideas which are more 

 easy to be conceived than expressed. ' 



George Washington corresponded a 

 great deal with an English agricultural 

 expert. He wrote numerous letters to 

 Arthur Young, a well-known English 

 countryman. In 1794 he said: "I know 

 of no pursuit in which more real and 

 imfKjrtant services can be rendered any 

 country, than by improving its agriculture 

 — its breeds of useful animals — and 

 other branches of a husbandman's cares; 

 nor can I conceive any plan more con- 

 ducive to this end than the one you have 

 introduced for bringing to view the actual 

 state of them in all parts of the Kingdom. 



"For the sake of humanity, it is 

 devoutly to be wished, that the manly 

 employment of agriculture, and the hu- 

 manizing benefit of commerce, would 

 supersede the waste of war, and the rage 

 of conquest; that the swords might be 

 turned into ploughshares, the spears into 

 pruning hooks, and, as the Scriptures ex- 

 press it, 'the Nations learn war' no 

 more." 



While in that day fanning was a 

 scattered enterprise with many large un- 

 developed estates, Washington believed 

 in organization of farmers. In 1797 he 

 said: "I have endeavored both in a pub- 

 lic and private character to encourage the 

 establishment of Boards of Agriculture 

 in this country, but hitherto in vain: . . . 

 Since the first establishment of the Na- 

 tional Board of Agriculture in Great 

 Britain, I have considered it as one of 

 the most valuable institutions of modem 

 times, and conducted with so much 

 ability and zeal as it apf>ears to be under 

 the auspices of Sir John Sinclair, must 

 be productive of great advantages to the 

 nation and to mankind in general." 



FEBRUARY. 1938 



31 



