<--PREV Doc #1352  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1354 Document #1353; March 21, 1955 To Milton Stover Eisenhower Series: EM, AWF, Name Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part VII: "Nothing could be worse than global war"; January 1955 to May 1955 Chapter 15: Searching "for an honorable peace"   Dear Milton: I am delighted to have the information on the chisel plow.1 I have been making inquiries everywhere for the past week or ten days, because I am convinced from what I read in a book called "Big Dam Foolishness" that the chisel plow ought to be very helpful in my particular region of Pennsylvania.2 In that area we have a tremendous amount of moisture in the spring, with very dry summers, and so far as I can see no effort has been made to assist the spring moisture in soaking into the ground. I believe the chisel plow would help.3 What you suggest about a meeting at the farm intrigues me mightily. It is possible that Mamie and I will go up there this coming weekend. If we do, I will give you as much advance information as possible. It might be that we could spend Saturday morning on the kind of meeting you suggest.4 I know that Mr. Purdy, Mr. Eakin and Dr. Albrecht could be very helpful, and I should personally like to meet the County Agent.5 As ever 1 On March 17 (AWF/N) Milton had sent a memorandum he had received which described the advantages of using the chisel plow. The associate dean of the College of Agriculture at Pennsylvania State University, Henry Richard Albrecht (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 1936), had written the memorandum (Mar. 14, 1955, ibid.). 2 Eisenhower was referring to Elmer T. Peterson's book, Big Dam Foolishness: The Problem of Modern Flood Control and Water Storage (New York, 1954). 3 As it turned out, Eisenhower's farm manager Arthur S. Nevins had already ordered a chisel plow (see Telephone conversation, Eisenhower and Nevins, Mar. 25, 1955, AWF/D). 4 Eisenhower would go to the farm on Saturday, March 26, but the meeting would not take place. On March 21 Eisenhower had sent Nevins copies of his correspondence with Milton. In the cover letter to Nevins Eisenhower explained that Mrs. Eisenhower wished to postpone a meeting at the farm until the house was "a little more settled" (AWF/N; see also Telephone conversation, Eisenhower and Nevins, Mar. 25, 1955, AWF/D; and Nevins to Eisenhower, Mar. 27, 1955, AWF/N). 5 Herman Purdy was a livestock expert from Pennsylvania State University (see Nevins, Five-Star Farmer, pp. 125-26). James Eakin was a soil expert from that university. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Milton Stover Eisenhower, 21 March 1955. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1353. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1353.cfm <--PREV Doc #1352  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1354

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