458 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



there are many things connected with it of which we may have some knowl- 

 edge without being farmers, and of which we may speak to those who are. 



Agriculture has engaged in its pursuit nearly one-half of the working force 

 of the nation, while the capital employed in it bears to the other industries 

 nearly the same ratio. Another fact which more ])articularly distingu'slies the 

 agriculture of this country is, tliat the men who own the soil occupy and culti- 

 vate it. Tliey are both laborers and capitalists; tliey are alike interested in 

 the prosperity of labor and the protection of capital. This fact, namely, 

 that we have an industrial class so numerous and representing so large a pro- 

 portion of the nation's wealth, we regard as being full of encouragement not 

 only for tlie progress of agriculture, on which it must exert an important in- 

 fluence, but also for the stability of the country, saving it from the destructive 

 influence of those wild agitators who would array labor against capital and 

 capital against labor. 



Interesting as the subject might be, it is not, however the object of this 

 address to dwell on the relation of the agriculturist to the body politic, but 

 rather to consider a few things pertaining to the successful prosecution of his 

 work. 



In the title given to this address I have used the words " Successful Farm- 

 ing.'" I do not, however, wish to be understood as referring merely to that 

 style of farming which may yield for the time-being the largest return in 

 dollars and cents. This is no doubt an important consideration, but it is not 

 the only one; nor is it in our opinion as important as some others. A farmer 

 may so conduct his operations for a number of years as to show a considerable 

 balance of profit, but the result may be that his land is impoverislied to such 

 an extent that years of unprofitable farming must necessarily follow. In such 

 a case the so-called balance of profit has been obtained by reducing the amount 

 of cash producing capital, for the fertility of the farm is what must be relied 

 upon as the source of income. AVith land being year by year robbed of that 

 fertility, the occupant has a most discouraging prospect before liim. Slowly, 

 it may be, but none tiie less effectually he is killing the goose that lays the 

 golden egg. Every one who has any acquaintance with agriculture knows that 

 the recuperation of impoverished and exhausted land is a slow and expensive 

 process. Experience demonstrates that in the long run, the margin of profit 

 is largest where the fertility of the soil is best maintained, by thorough culti- 

 vation and by applying those manurial elements which the growing of crops 

 tends to exhaust. It is as foolish to suppose that you can improve your condi- 

 tion by impoverishing your soil as it would be to expect a rich return of milk, 

 or beef, or wool, or pork from animals that you neglect and starve. 



Again, a farmer may be making money, carrying on his operations, as most 

 people would say successfully, while at the same time he is subjecting himself 

 and his family to privations and discomforts for which the money he has made 

 is far from being an adequate offset. Farmers as a class exercise an honorable 

 frugality and industry, but when that frugality descends to parsimony or stin- 

 giness, it is as despicable in a farmer as in anyone else. 



To rob your homes of comforts and the means of refinement for the sake of 

 saving money is far from being a successful policy. The chief value of money 

 lies in what it will procure for us in the way of physical comforts, intellectual 

 and moral culture and social pleasures; in short, all those things that tend to 

 enlarge our sphere of usefulness, multiply our resources of true enjoyment, 

 and promote the growth of a noble manhood and womanhood. To the extent 

 that we can afford these tilings there is no true economy in depriving ourselves 



