96 OXFORD SOCIETY. 



a liui^e variety of corn wliicli you are tempted to purchase at 

 an exorbitant price. A neii^hbor accidentally raises a srjuasii 

 ■weigliing an hundred pounds, and the seeds arc in demand all 

 over the county with the vain hope of raising like squashes. 

 Some farmer has a cow which furnislies a great yield of butter, 

 and his neighbor becomes uneasy that his cows are not great 

 milkers, and an enormous price is paid for a calf of ihc famous 

 cow willi the expectatioji of raising one liei' equal. A new 

 breed of swine is brouu-ht forward thai will make largo hnn-s and 

 fatten easily. This is a happy combination surely, liut the 

 large framed breed will do for llie farmer who possesses a 

 large amount of coarse food; while the mechanic, who de- 

 pends on what he buys to fatten, will find the small breeds the 

 best. Large breeds of cattle come utuJei the same rule. Poor 

 pastures cannot make large cattle, rour rich intervales will 

 support the Durhams and Jerseys. Your poor uplands the 

 Herefords and Devons. 



There is yet another form in niiich the farmer injures liim- 

 sclf, especially the man of liuiited i-esources. It is well known 

 that the price of many ai'ticlc.^ fluctuates greatly in the course 

 ofa few years. Take wool for example. To-day the price is 

 sixty or seventy cents a pound. The farmer immediately 

 sets about raising a flock of sheep. It takes him several years 

 to accomplish it. but when he is ready to receive liis extra 

 profits, wool is dull at twenly-five cents. He fears that 

 it will never be higher, and so sells ofl' his flock at the 

 lowest market price, Avhile his shrewder neighbor commences 

 enlarging his flock, read}' Lo take advantage of the rise in prices. 



The farmers all around Itecorae excited at ihc news that hops 

 bring in the market twenty cents a pound. lie inunediately 

 sets out a hop field. By the time he is ready to receive a good 

 crop, the price has fallen to five cents, lie becomes discouraged 

 and tears up his hops roots for something else. 



Th(^ true course would seem to be, to go steadily along, 

 ready to receive a good price when it comes, and not to be 

 always running after it. A successful ship-builder once informed 

 me thai he always kept his t)nsiness going much the same, 

 whethe)' ships were dull, or quick in the market. 



The greatest fault I have lo mark against the farmer, is the 



