32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUEE. 



into gold in their coffers. They seem to have a magnetic 

 power, which causes wealth to flow to them without act or 

 volition on their part. Farming pays such men. In relation 

 to secular affairs, no more erroneous or hurtful idea was ever 

 entertained than that any business, in and of itself, ever did 

 or ever can pay. The fact is, everything depends upon the 

 man. In ordinary cases he controls the situation, and is a 

 more important element in producing results than the mere 

 pursuit. For an exact understanding of this subject, there- 

 fore, we should, just as far as possible, discard these extreme 

 cases on either side, and ascertain, if we can, if the soil does 

 not return a paying value and support for average labor and 

 intelligence expended in its cultivation. If we knew nothing 

 of the minute details of the matter it would be fair to presume 

 that it did, for two reasons : First, because that from the 

 very nature and constitution of our being, the tilling of the 

 ground is, and must forever be, the occupation of much the 

 largest portion of our race. This was planned by the Great 

 Designer, and it cannot be that it was in' ended in an}'^ sense 

 to be unrequited toil; but on the other hand, that it should, 

 all things considered, abundantly reward all the labor re- 

 quired. And second, because in agriculture, the workman, 

 if he knows his business, need perform but half the labor. 

 He is simply a co-worker, a helper. If he but plan aright, 

 Nature's powers and forces enter the field and delve early and 

 late. Tirelessly, they work on, whether he sleeps or wakes, 

 and the grand results of this gratuitous labor are all his 

 own. 



Now let us examine the facts and see if they do not fully 

 sustain the presumption ; and take the whole United States, — 

 a field broad enough to include good and poor farming, the 

 wise and the foolish, the thrifty and the thriftless, the sections 

 of good markets and crops, and poor markets and crops ; 

 those who farm with the best advantages and those with none, 

 — and see if under these unfavorable circumstances farming 

 does not pay for the cost of carrying it on, and a rich per cent. 

 for all the capital invested. To ascertain this with any de- 

 gree of exactness, we must know the sum invested in all the 

 farming-lands of the Union (in other words, wx must know 

 their present worth), including unimproved land and farm- 



