ANNUAL ADDEESS. 127 



mediate and direct sufferer by these adversities, we should bear 

 in mind that all other branches of industry, which are at best 

 mainly dependent upon the success of his own, are remotely, 

 and as certainly affected by his loss. General and wide-spread 

 financial embarrassment, and business derangement, always re- 

 sult from the failure of the farmer's crops — so that the farmer 

 would not escape the evils of which he may for the moment, be- 

 lieve himself to be the only victim, by adopting any other avo- 

 cation. All other business and investments have their peculiar 

 perils and fortuitous casualities. Pile after pile of costly mater- 

 ial, and architecture, the marts of trade, and the magnificent or- 

 naments of your cities and villages, may turn to ashes in an hour 

 by some incendiary or accidental conflagiation — .-hips of com- 

 merce laden with the wealth of trade may be ingulphed beneath 

 the yielding and fickle element of lake or ocean, by a sudden 

 gale, and the most far-seeing and sagacious plans of business, are 

 liable to failure, and apparently the most feasible and promising 

 enterprises, frequently end in bankruptcy and poverty. If agri- 

 culture is judiciously selected as an avocation, and prosecuted 

 with industry, intelligence and judgment, there need be no fail- 

 ure, except by the adverse interposition of Providcrice. And 

 the reason so many do not thrive, and are disatisfied in this pur- 

 suit, is not because in itself, it is unprofitable and uncertain, but 

 because wrong and unsuitable means are employed to achieve a 

 successful result. 



It is as impossible for a man to make farming a profitable bus- 

 iness without a preparatory course of education and training, as 

 to succeed in anything else, without first learning and under- 

 standing it. Instead of its being a business, that any one may 

 take up and adopt at pleasure, as a simple exertion of physical 

 strength, it involves the application of as much mental discern- 

 ment and scientific research, as any of the arts or professions, in 

 order to its highest success. The man who begins at the wrong 

 end to split a stick, and endeavors to turn a furrow up a hill, 

 and having no skill, makes an awkward and most laborious use 

 of farming tools and implements, has no knowledge of the na- 

 ture of soils and their congenial adaption to the various kinds of 



