NEEDS OF NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 75 



combine against them, for this will give us an organized sup- 

 port that will be of the greatest value to the younger men, and 

 1 it is the help of the younger men that we need above all things. 



This is a movement that will win as it grows. Its first steps 

 will be faltering and it will be opposed on all sides by the 

 united prejudice of every community. Never mind. Let us 

 try it ; we are not fair to our comrades when we leave them 

 unaided in their contests with their neighbors. We must 

 realize the fact that it is our neighbors — wherever we are — who 

 (without really meaning us harm) stand the most in our way, 

 and we must remember that our best allies are timid boys who 

 are still debating the great question of their lives, — to be or not 

 to be farmers. A little help from us may decide them and may 

 secure able heads for our councils, which if we neglect them 

 will turn away to trade and count against us. 



To sum up, then : How shall New England farming be 

 made to keep even with the other arts of the day ? The 

 process must necessarily be a slow one, but its result is certain. 



We must use more capital, more enterprise, and more brains 

 in the management of the business. We must make the first 

 aim of all our work, the getting of money, and we must work 

 for it in our farming, as we would do in any other employment. 

 The easy-going way of taking our returns as luck may send 

 them will not answer. We must compel our luck to be good ; 

 that is, so far as possible, we must remove the element of luck 

 or chance entirely from our calculations, and study to turn to 

 our advantage influences which, if left to themselves, would 

 turn against us. We must drain our wet lands and manure 

 all our lands. We must not lose the use of a grain of manure, 

 and we must never raise a poor crop, when it would be possible 

 to raise a good one. We must farm far less land. Every acre 

 we cultivate costs interest, labor, and seed — as much with a 

 poor crop as with a good one — and we must cultivate only so 

 many of them as we can by thorough work, thorough manur- 

 ing, and (if need be) thorough draining, make to produce a 

 full profit beyond this necessary cost. 



Farming must be made attractive to men of intelligence. 

 They must see what ihere is in it (and Heaven knows there is 

 enough) to afford profitable employment for their best capacity, 



