A few years back I had the opportunity to shed some sweat on an Illinois farm. It was for a series of newspaper articles about farming. About once each week from April to November I spent a day with the McLachlan family who worked about 800 acres in the central part of the state. Flat as a pool table, their land was blessed with black soil eight feet deep. They grew corn and beans from their porches to the speed limit signs. The family had been working the same land for more than 100 years.