M. L. Wilson

Milburn Lincoln Wilson (October 23, 1885 – November 22, 1969) was an American Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman under the New Deal and Fair Deal. His main interest was social justice for farmers. He made major contributions to federal agricultural policies, including creating the first domestic allotment plan for the Agricultural Adjustment Act and helping to create the first agricultural commodity programs and for the United States. With the urging of agronomist Alfred Atkinson, he moved to Montana in 1909 as a homesteader near Fallon. His primary concern was for farmers in the "lower one-third". The Milburn Lincoln Wilson Agricultural Photographs Collection is housed at Montana State University Cropping to Flax on New Lands of Semi-arid Land Areas. with H. L. Bolley. Bozeman: Montana Agricultural College, Experiment Station, 1913 Farm Relief and the Domestic Allotment Plan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1933 Democracy Has Roots. Preface by Charles A. Beard. New York: Carrick & Evans, 1939 Studies of Rural Social Organization in the United States, Latin America, and Germany. with C. Loomis and C. C. Taylor. East Lansing: State College Book Store, 1945 Shell Eggs: Quality and Properties as Affected by Temperature and Length of Storage. with Ruth A. Jordan and A. T. Barr. Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1954 Community Development Programme in India: Report of a Survey. [Delhi?], India: Community Projects Administration, Government of India, 1956 Wilson and the Campaign for the Domestic Allotment. with William D. Rowley. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1970

Contributions to other works The Federal Government Today; a Survey of Recent Innovations and Renovations. Morris Bartel Schnapper and Frances Perkins, editors. United States: American Council on Public Affairs, 1938 Thomas Jefferson. Papers Read Before the American Philosophical Society in Celebration of the Bicentennial of Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the Society. United States: American Philosophical Society, 1943

Personal life On December 17, 1913, Wilson married Ida Morse of Cromwell, Minnesota. The couple had one daughter. Wilson went to the Mayo Clinic for treatment for his stomach ulcers and became very interested in nutrition. Wilson and his family left Montana and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1933. He was a Unitarian and a member of the Cosmos Club.

In 1969, Wilson died in Washington at the age of 84 years after injuries from a fall. His funeral service was held in Bethesda, Maryland. His grave lies in Rock Creek Cemetery.