In the first great day the earth was made and Adam, the first farmer, was set therein to care for it- and make it possible for the millions, past, present and future, to live. All food came direct from the soil. Today the nation's prosperity rises and falls, just as the farmer prospers, with each succeeding crop. Each of you, in your seeming obscure corner, yield and influence; politics and Wall Street do not make values. Value alone comes from the sea, the forests, the mines and the farm. The farm is of the greater importance, and the very foundation of wealth.
Your class produces each year in the United States an unthinkable value, equal to the products of all the mines from the earliest of times.
In the great wheel of industrial activity, the farm makes up the hub. From it in all directions project the many various spokes of enterprise; remove the hub and each dependent spoke, lacking the support must fail. You are the impelling force that drives every wheel of industry. If each of you should stop for- work for a single year there would be no business, no need for cities or railways. One-half of the world would starve and the other half be naked. Desolation everywhere would be as complete as the desolation of earthquake-stricken Italy.
The nations and the great commercial enterprises are forced to return to the fountainhead and constantly draw from the farm new blood and energy to manage the affairs of state and man.
Since the farmer's calling was the first, and is the biggest, the best, the most important and the most necessary upon earth; since the Ruler and nature have done so much for you in soil preparation and laid upon you the responsibility of feeding the present day multitudes, it is but fitting that you should enjoy the quiet and peaceable possession of a portion of the virgin soil, the very cream of Mother Earth, before you return to her and claim your perpetual right to the portion that will be assigned to you for your long and quiet home."
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 91