106 



This question, it is important to examine. The farmer cannot, by any 

 process of agricultural labor, attain to excessive "wealth. But if good 

 land and a good climate will not raise an industrious farmer, -with judi- 

 cious systems of management, to competence and independence, a case 

 of hopeless despondency is then presented ; and desperate must be the 

 conditions of the individuals, and of the government Avhich derives, as 

 in this State, nearly all its support from the landed interest. It is true, 

 that for the last two years, great embarrasment has pervaded the farm- 

 ing interest ; it has been felt in the non-payment of domestic and foreign 

 debts, and then, inquiry is made abroad, why do not your farmers, 

 when land is so cheap, make money ? That a great pressure has exist- 

 ed for the want of money, is evident from the great demand for it, and 

 the high interest it has borne. As wheat is our great staple, the low 

 price of that grain, and the expense of transportation, has been assigned 

 as the prominent cause of our depression. Counting upon our wheat 

 crop, we bought more on credit than we could realise out of it ; heavy 

 taxes, by reason of owning more land than we could improve ; paying 

 a high interest for an extended credit ; improvident expenditures, in 

 buying everything and manufacturing nothing ; too much waste land 

 without profit, and a wasteful and injudicious management, with the- 

 successive failure of the wheat crop, have blighted the farmer's hopes, 

 and impoverished his purse. The truth is, we have been buying expe- 

 rience, which, though dearly bought, will prove in the end salutary, and 

 was in fact necessary to correct an error something like that which Dr. 

 Franklin said was somewhere prevalent, that chickens were then flying 

 about, already cooked and ready to be eaten ! We have been too san- 

 guine in our anticipations, beyond the limits of prudence and common 

 sense. Good farming is the exercise of consummate skill and judgment, 

 and is not to be trifled with by unskilful hands. How can we expect 

 other than hard times, if we do not produce what will equal our expen- 

 ses ? We must either produce more and expend less, or produce an article' 

 which has value, or will sell at a remunerating price, aff'ording a nett 

 profit over all expenses. Hard times are simply the excess of expenses 

 over income, and they are about the only thing of home manufacture. 



It is the policy of the farmer to raise that for which there is demand. 

 Supply and demand regulate the price. In some years there is a de- 

 mand for pork, as at present — now worth seventeen dollars a barrel — 

 then again for wheat, and again for potatoes, barley, oats and corn. Cheese- 



