SECRETAKY'S REPORT. 37 



•confident that the ends to be tlius obtained, are of sufficient 

 magnitude to warrant all the labor and cost. Certainly, agri- 

 culture can never be elevated to the position of a business, prop- 

 erl}^ so called, and command capital and confidence, until it be 

 done ; and until then, it must drag along, as it now does, with 

 slow progress, its results being matters of conjecture, about 

 which there can be no settled conviction. But such system, 

 and especially if connected with a record of experience, as it 

 should be, will reveal much which has a direct beai'ing on the 

 interests of each individual farmer. 



In order to success, each should know what product will com- 

 mand the highest price, relatively to the cost of prodtictiou. 



We know that men are not similarly endowed with nat- 

 ural ability, or acquired skill. Soils vary in their capabili- 

 ties, markets may be near or remote. These and similar con- 

 siderations all have their bearings o.m each case, and no one can 

 understand the matter fully, without making a business of it — 

 introducing system and order ; without it, one may not even know 

 that he is earning fair wages, to say nothing about profit, and so 

 might be better off" to sell his labor to others, instead of using 

 it himself, and so save all care and anxiety. 



It must by no means be forgotten, that so long as the 

 farmer can obtain the cost of his products only, he has no 

 reason to be discouraged, because he can live comfortably upon 

 ihe wages which is a part of the cost; but if his products cost 

 more than they will bring in market, it is time to cast about and 

 ascertain the cause, and in doing this, it is highly probable, that 

 much may be developed hitherto unsuspected. For instance, he 

 may find that one acre of corn, yielding thirty bushels, costs a 

 dollar per bushel, while another upon whick more has been ex- 

 pended in manuring and deeper tillage, yields sixty bushels, at 

 a cost of only seventy -five cents per bushel^ or he may find that 

 his crops or his mode of cultivation are not tliose best adapted 

 to the kind of soil — or that being remote from market, he has 

 hitherto lost a large proportion of the price obtained, in ex- 

 penses of transportation, and so might do better to turn his hay, 

 grain, or roots, into beef, pork, or mutton, and thus save much. 

 He may find that his implements are not so good as those of 

 others, who can aS"ord to sell cheaper — or his manures too 



