186 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK 



pays, not a diminished half, leaving the larger half to fatten a 

 long row of speculators and carriers, anybody and everybody but 

 himself, out of his labors. Dependence on foreign manufactures 

 has no tendency to enrich a people. If a nation thus dependent 

 becomes rich, it is from other causes — is not in consequence of 

 this dependence, but in spite of it; and agriculture can never 

 flourish steadily and for long periods, nor agricultui'ists rise to 

 their deserved position till nearly all the wants of a country are 

 supplied by home and not by foreign labor. Let the sound of the 

 anvil, the hum of the spindle and the buzz of the shuttle, mingle 

 with the lowing of herds, the bleating of flocks and the haw buck 

 gee away bright of the plow-boy; let the farmer and the mechanic 

 exchange products freely, without a dozen sticky hands between, 

 each receiving all that the other pays, and both will flourish, 

 because each will receive the whole value of the article furnished 

 by him, be it a bushel of wheat, a quarter of veal, a hand-saw, a 

 cradle or a churn, instead of dividing it with a dozen carriers and 

 schemers between the two. 



The farmers themselves may he in the fault by failing to inform 

 themselves as well as men in other callings, by not being read up 

 in the great improvements in their own business, by going on 

 uninquiringly in the production of small crops, at a dear rate, 

 w^hen it would be quite possible to produce larger crops, at a rate 

 cheaper in proportion to the quantity produced; by not observing 

 the state of the markets and so allowing speculators to get the 

 advantage of them, and generally by failing to cultivate in them- 

 selves those qualities of the farmer, the man, the gentleman, which 

 necessarily, as society is constituted, command esteem, respect, 

 influence. Industry, integrity, intelligence, go far to make the 

 man and to give him position. But these are not all. The appear- 

 ance of his home, his personal appearance when abroad, his style 

 of conversation, intelligent or otherwise; ability to use his mother 

 tongue correctly, and to converse sensibly on all subjects of gen- 

 eral interest, have something, much, to do with standing, position 

 and influence. We do not wish the farmer to bankrupt himself 

 by a vain efibrt to outdo the follies of all the hards and softs in 

 uppertendom; but with the innocent usages of society, as far as 

 compatible with his means, he should conform; should allow his '^ 

 family to conform with them; encourage them even, if necessary; 



