CHANGES IN FARMING. 



007 



been brought up with domestic habits and that will help you very 

 much. 



Prof. Febnald. We have listened to an excellent address ; 

 one that is very suggestive, and that will afford food for profitable 

 thought for a long time. Mr. Goodale suggested one very excel- 

 lent point, in what he has stated in regard to special farming, 

 that the farmers of Maine need to direct their attention to special- 

 ties, more and more, rather than carry on very mixed farming. 

 It is undoubtedly desirable to carry on general farming to some 

 extent. It cannot be disguised, that for all young men looking 

 forward to pursuits in life, the money question is one that has 

 great influence upon them. If farming is to bring remunerative 

 returns it must be by conducting a farm as the speaker said, upon 

 business principles. It must be by the farmer preparing himself 

 for some special line .of agriculture that he can carry on success- 

 fully, and he may then hope for returns that will compare well 

 with the returns which may be secured in other business. I 

 remember, some years ago, of having to look for a microscope, 

 and ou going to New York, I inquired out a maker of microscopes, 

 and went to see him, and I found that he knew little else than the 

 microscope. He knew how to make a good lens, and his micro- 

 scopes sold at high prices, all because every lens he made repre- 

 sented a large degree of skill. It was tire skill that was paid for 

 mainly. He devoted himself to that specialty and he could get 

 large returns for his labor. If he had attempted to carry on 

 several kinds of business, it would have been a failure ; but in 

 making what he understood thoroughly he reaped large returns. 

 I remember a few years ago of going into the glass works in 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts, and there I found a man who was 

 ornamenting globes for lamps. This was done by holding the 

 globes to be ground, a,nd thus the figures were made. I learned 

 this fact : that he worked four years in England to learn how to do 

 that single operation, and it was done to perfection and he com- 

 manded large pay. What was paid for? It was the skill of the 

 workman. 



Now in agriculture, if a man wants to get returns, he must put 

 skill into his work. And it is pretty clear that a man can master 

 certain forms of agricultural labor so that he can carry on the 

 work more skillfull}- and hence more successfully, and get larger 

 returns than if he undertook to cover the whole ground. So 

 while it may be necessary to carry on general farming to a Certain 



