94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



alone? lie invariably has some outside show to get his capital from. 

 A rich farmer is au exception. This being the case, why is it so? 

 Why is the farmer so short of means ? Wh\' so many farms mort- 

 gaged? Why so man}- changes in the farming population? selling, 

 perhaps, the old homestead, around which cluster so many recollec- 

 tions of childliood. What but the hope of bettering his condition, 

 the hope of better success, would induce him to part with the old 

 farm? Is it a lack of calculation or judgment, of diligence and 

 proper attention to his business, or is he poorl}' paid for his labors 

 and for the products of his farm? 



It seems to me we might be able to find the cause of this poor 

 success, and knowing the cause or causes, apply a remedy. And 

 what more fitting occasion than this Farmers' Institute to talk over 

 this subject. Here we have assembled men of large experience, of 

 varied success in life, men of energy and enterprise, ready to grasp 

 every new fact in agricultural science, as well as those more cautious. 



There is a large class of farmers who hardh' make the two ends 

 of the year meet, get ahead a little this year and fall behind next, 

 consoling themselves with "Just my luck! farming is an uncertain 

 business any way." When any pailicular product is high, he has 

 raised some other crop, or only enough for his own use. If he could 

 tell that potatoes would be worth a dollar a bushel next fall, that 

 beans would bring three dollars, or pork be so ver\- high, he could farm 

 iit with profit. 



He buys stock, horses, or cattle, and something will befall them ; 

 horses will get lame, have the heaves, or something ha|)peu to them. 

 'The pasture was short, so the cattle did not gain as he expected, 

 and he has to sell them for less than he paid. Stock is high this 

 year — has he any to sell? No ; it was low last fall, and he thought 

 it was so much more work to take care of cattle than sheep — the 

 cattle you have to water and clean out every day, and sheep you do 

 not. so he would try sheep. Now he has more shee[) than he wants 

 to winter, and it seems as if no one wanted to buy shee|) ; all the 

 call is for cattle. He concludes sheep raising a poor I)usiness, gets 

 rid of his sheep at a ruinous price and goes to raising cattle. In a 

 few years he has got well stocked with cattle. There are one or two 

 ■shoi't crops of hay, beef is very low and there is very little call for 

 cattle. Meantime the price of wool has advanced. All the call is 

 for sheep. P)Ut I need not follow this further. You all know how 

 it has been in the past — ups and downs — and I suppose will be thus 



