CHANGES LEAD TO LOSS. 137 



facturers, you will find that their changes have absorbed a 

 large amount of their profits. There are few who will strug- 

 gle along through a losing year. The remark was made 

 this morning at the breakfast-table, " Last year was a very 

 poor year for cabbages. This year people kept out of them, 

 and we have a great deal better year for cabbages." I made 

 tlie remark that next year would be a very poor 3'ear for 

 cabbages, from the fact that people will say, " Cabbages did 

 well last year : I am going for them this year." They will 

 go for them, and cabbages will be very likely to be an 

 unprofitable crop. That is the way in manufactures. Men 

 see that a certain man is making money on a particular line 

 of goods, and they say, " We will go into the business of 

 making those goods." But, just as soon as they get ready to 

 put them on the market, the price has declined, and there is 

 no profit in them. A friend of mine who was manufacturing 

 blankets, finding that blankets were low, thought he would 

 change his mill so as to make flannels, and did so at a cost 

 of ten thousand dollars ; but, when he had got fairly at work 

 on his flannels, he found that blankets would pay him a great 

 deal better. I have had some experience in manufacturing; 

 and I have found that those men who made a specialty of one 

 thing were likelj'' to succeed a great deal better than an 

 individual who was constantly changing from one thing to 

 another. 



I once attended a farmers' meeting in New Hampshire, 

 and one old gentleman got up and said, " They talk about 

 farming not paying. I have heard that talk ever since I was 

 a boy ; and sometimes I should be almost forced to believe it, 

 but for this fact, — when I started farming, I had nothing : I 

 had to run in debt for my farm and for my stock. I have 

 brought up a pretty large family, and have given them a 

 good education ; I have got my farm paid for, and my stock 

 is paid for, and I do not owe a man a dollar; and this," he 

 said, " is not only my case, but that of many of my neighbors 

 who started out young men about in the like condition, and 

 who have done about the same as I have done." 



Mr. D AVENPOET (of Colrain) . I wish to say a few words 

 in regard to the idea of changing business. As far as my 

 experience goes, it is not advisable to be changing from one 

 kind of business to another. But one good rule I have 



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