CONDITION OF AGRICULTURE. 319 



If it cannot be denied that successful farming yields a smaller 

 profit than may be obtained in commerce or the mechanic arts, 

 neither docs a reverse bring so deep a ruin. The annual insol- 

 vent list, that sombre record of wasted energy and blighted 

 hope, is not loaded with the names of prudent husbandmen, 

 overtaken in apparent affluence by a commercial or a moneyed 

 crisis. The affliction of an attenuated dividend-sheet rarely annoys 

 their creditors or disturbs themselves, and in the quiet of an 

 unchequercd life they stand secure from the gulfs which yawn 

 for the more confident and adventurous tradesman. Yet, not- 

 withstanding the depth and freqiiency of the reverses that attend 

 almost every other walk in life, it is too apparent that an undue 

 proportion of our population are avoiding the certainties of an 

 agricultural life for the more exciting and illusive prospects 

 which glitter in the train of commerce, the arts and the learned 

 professions. Tlie reasons for this course of action are, doubtless, 

 various. But may it not, to some extent, be attributed to the 

 system of farming which has so long and so generally prevailed ? 

 Is it not natural that a youth should desire to abandon an occu- 

 pation which he sees has rarely been a favorite, and which is too 

 often wanting in attractions for his age, and too frequently 

 unattended with the remuneration due to incessant labor ? In 

 order to invest farming with the attractions of trade, it should 

 be engaged in with the same intensity. The farm should be 

 regarded as the capital of the operation, to be cherished and 

 nourished as tlie fountain of all profits. The same attention 

 should be manifested to increase its value as is shown to in- 

 crease the capital stock in other operations. No fear that 

 money expended on its improvement will be lost must be 

 allowed to obtrude itself. A confidence in its ability to make a 

 regular return of annual profits should be felt and expressed, 

 not for the purpose of giving a factitious value to such property, 

 for it needs no such help, but to draw attention to an employ- 

 ment of such vital importance to all, and to show that the safest 

 of occupations may also be among the most profitable. To incul- 

 cate just sentiments in regard to the importance and value of 

 husbandry, it is necessary that the farmer should be the teacher, 

 both at home and abroad ; and that his confidence in his teach- 

 ing and the proofs of its correctness should be shown, not 

 only by the crops he raises, but in the attractions by which he 



