610 



become valuable. Your abundant crops meet a ready market at femo- 

 uerative prices, and your present prosperity needs only to be tempered 

 with ■wi8<lom, to make you in all things truly independent. 



In this connection, let me give a little advice. Advice, at all timwi, 

 is easier to give than to follow, unless it will put money in our pock- 

 etis; and as no other would be heeded, I assure you that is my object. 

 The general prosperity of agricultural pursuits has, this fall, given us 

 more means than our necessities or wants absolutely require. If, there- 

 ' fore, you would enjoy your prosperity, pay as you go. Ready money 

 will buy more than any man's credit. Five per cent., at least, will be 

 saved by paying cash. Sellers can easily and well afford, considering 

 the uncertainty and perplexity of collecting even good debts, to make 

 that deduction to any one ; and the amount saved by every one each 

 year, will be a handsome sum. With many people, also, ready money 

 operates as a check upon the imagination ; and the buyer, before he 

 parts with his cash, will most generally stop to inquire if he really needs 

 the article for which he proposes to exchange it. " The borrower is 

 servant to the lender," saith the Scripture ; and by heedlessly running 

 in debt, we become the servant to the merchant, mechanic, doctor, <fec. 

 We mortgage our own happiness — the policy is ruinous, and many a 

 poor fellow has found, to his cost, that 



" The man that once did sell the lion's skin 



While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him." 



Besides, the luxury of being independent — of owing no man a dol- 

 lar — is worth more than all the personal liLxuries money can surround 

 UB with. Ostentatious display and useless show are wholly inconsistent 

 with a farmers success; and over whom they exei'cise control, they be- 

 come the bitter canker of existence. Comforts of all kinds our farmers 

 can and should have. Everything that can make them independent, or 

 happy, or successful as farmers, should be purchased ; always living 

 within one's means, and paying as you go. If you never paralyze 

 your efforts or destroy your independence by getting into debt, a happy 

 home and a competency will be the consequence. 



The last census discloses many interesting facts in regard to our 

 county, which it may be gratifying to recall to mind. Oakland is the 

 first county in Michigan in almost every branch of agricultural wealth. 

 We have more horses, more cows, more working oxen and cattle of 



