470 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



accumulates, but the result to the farmer (and his family if he has one) is a 

 poverty that cannot be estimated. Thus we read that Abraham was very 

 rich in cattle, in silver and gold, while Lot had flocks and herds and tents, 

 and their united stock increased to such a number that the country could not 

 support them ; here we find in the history of these two men an illustration 

 of that kind of farming that pays best. The one with a life fully rounded 

 out, improving opportunities, an example and blessing to his neighbors and 

 future generations, the other successful in business, but mingling with a 

 wicked people his life became a failure. 



The strong incentive to enterprise in every industry is to excel and accumu- 

 late property, and to deny that privilege to the American farmer reduces him 

 to the condition of the serfs and peasantry of European countries. 



If the farmer cannot have something higher and nobler to look fprward to 

 than bare existence, then the vaunted independence of his calling ceases, and 

 he becomes only a grade above the domestic animals he cares for. 



Fortunate is that man who has brain to direct, and physical strength to 

 endure the labors of farming; he has a double element of success in his call- 

 ing and there may be no limit to his legitimate and rightful acquirements. 



With scarcely an exception no place in the United States is better calcu- 

 lated for the full development of the agriculturist in the different branches 

 of his industry than Southern Michigan. With a soil easily understood, 

 susceptible of the highest cultivation and conveniently accessible to markets it 

 should not be the exception but the rule that farming paid in the fullest and 

 broadest sense. It does, but how? We have small farms and large ones, 

 small farms that pay and large ones that do not, large farms that pay and 

 small ones that get poorer year by year. The observer has but to look around 

 and all over our State he will see beautiful homes with pleasant surroundings 

 on both large and small farms, with every indication that farming has paid. 



The good farmer is careful of his surroundings. His fences and buildings 

 are in good order, his farm implements and tools are well cared for, he 

 knows intimately how his affairs are, how he is placed financially with the 

 world and what he has to expect for the coming year. He keeps a watchful 

 care of his animals, thinning out and disposing of the ones that are depreciat- 

 ing or cannot be made profitable to keep, encouraging the others by good care 

 and attention that he may make the most possible of them. He avoids ex- 

 tremes in any one branch of his farming when failure or disappointment in 

 his expectations would be disastrous. His outgoes are kept within the limit 

 of his income, he has a care for the interest of the State, he is careful to ful- 

 fill his obligations to society and looks to the best interests of his neigh- 

 borhood. He eschews all evil, patent right and Bohemian oat swindles, and 

 does not lie awake nights thinking how he can get something for nothing. 

 In fact his life is rounded out to the fullest possible limit of his surroundings 

 and opportunities. 



It becomes us to exalt and dignify our calling, looking well to every means 

 and interest calculated to promote the peace, happiness and prosperity of a 

 great people. 



Mr. Willis, of Moscow: In my judgment that farming pays best which 

 most increases the fertility of the farm. I believe that as a specialty the 

 raising of horses would pay as well as any other. 



Mr. Wetmore : We are too much inclined to get into ruts and keep in 

 them. It may cost a little to get out but it will be a gain in the end. To 



