A quotation commonly misattributed to Thomas Jefferson.

I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position & calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. no occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable...

I am become sensible of a great advantage your profession has over most others, that, to the close of your life, you can be always doing good to mankind: whereas a retired politician is like a broken down courser, unfit for the turf, and good for little else. I am endeavoring to recover the...

I am never satiated with rambling through the fields and farms, examining the culture and cultivators, with a degree of curiosity which makes some take me to be a fool, and others to be much wiser than I am.

I am constantly roving about, to see what I have never seen before and shall never see again

yet sincerely devoted to this art, the basis of the subsistence, the comforts, and the happiness of man.

Since I had last the pleasure of writing to you, I have to acknolege the reciept of your favors of 1809. June 12. & Oct. 9. & 1810. March 24. with the first came the seeds of the Paullinia or Koelreuteria, one of which has germinated, and is now growing. I cherish it with particular...

the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to it’s culture; especially a bread grain.

Agriculture ... this first & most precious of all the arts

I am entirely a farmer, soul and body, never scarcely admitting a sentiment on any other subject