We are the sons of the earth and seas," wrote Benjamin Franklin, "and, like Antaeus, if in wrestling with Hercules we now and then receive a fall, a touch of our parent will communicate to us fresh strength and ability to renew the contest."
Most of the Americans of Franklin's day lived on and from the land. And Franklin himself was a farmer at heart. Although he grew to highest repute as a diplomat and statesman, his thoughts constantly returned to the soil. When he wrote: "He that by the plow would thrive Himself must either hold or drive," he was adapting farmers' philosophy to the needs of the times.
Franklin did not have time to be a real "dirt" farmer. But he carried on correspondence with the best known farmers of his day, did some experimenting on a plot of ground near Philadelphia, and imported and exported seeds and fruit and nut trees. More than this, he owned 200 acres of land in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on which he paid taxes in 1766 and afterward. The evidence suggests, however, that this land was accepted in lieu of money payment on a bad debt. In any event, the buildings and fences were in a sad state of disrepair, and the land was badly eroded and very unproductive. Yet it must be remembered that only eight of Franklin's last 33 years were spent in the United States, the management of his land being left almost entirely in the hands of his wife, Deborah, until her death in 1774.
Franklin's interest in agriculture as well as in a variety of other phases of Nature was primarily that of a scientist, in which capacity he was also well known. Robert A. Millikin was so impressed with Franklin's contributions to this field of endeavor that he classed him among the 14 most influential scientists who lived during the period between the birth of Copernicus in 1473 and the death of William Gibbs in 1903.
Franklin had a number of inventions to his credit, of which the lightning rod and the Franklin stove are the best known. He corresponded with the leading scientists of Europe and America, and his letters were read at the meetings of the learned societies and recorded in their minutes.