AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 363 



cared-for families. They have a surplus for sale, and trade 

 and speculate when an opportunity occurs. 



It is true, they do not become suddenly wealthy ; they do 

 not on some fine morning find themselves thousands of 

 dollars richer than when they went to bed the night before 

 by a rise in railway or mining stocks ; they do not see the 

 hundreds daily coming in, earned by a long, anxious, persist- 

 ent drudgery of years, at the sacrifice of health and peace of 

 mind, behind the counter or on the wharf. Nor, on the other 

 hand, do they make such disastrous failures, and find them- 

 selves overwhelmed in such utter ruin, as too often occurs to 

 those who build on the uncertain foundations of trade. 



It is a widely proclaimed fact that only about one farmer 

 who prudently and faithfully tills the soil becomes a bank- 

 rupt as against nine of those who commit themselves to the 

 vicissitudes of trade and manufactures. 

 ■* When a hard-working farmer of correct habits, good judg- 

 ment, and reputable character, fails, as we say, or becomes 

 bankrupt, it may be very generally traced to one of three 

 causes. Of course, a man may be pecuniarily ruined by such 

 things as destruction by flood or fire, loss of animals or crops, 

 or by wasting sickness ; but these are the exceptional cases, 

 and usually it will be found either that he commenced his 

 farming in debt by an improvident purchase, or, oftener, with 

 an ambition beyond his means, by taking his father's farm 

 (the old homestead where he was born and reared), prob- 

 ably a good deal run down, perhaps encumbered by mort- 

 gage, or with brothers and sisters to pay off or support, and 

 perhaps with other encumbrances, making a load of interest 

 and expenses under which he staggers for years, until at last, 

 wearied and bowed down, he trips against some slight mis- 

 fortune, and falls with a crash. 



Another, prosperous and forehanded, successful to such an 

 extent as to have made his credit high and bankable, free 

 from debt, and trusting in others, has, in the kindness or the 

 weakness of his nature, been induced to incur obligations 

 for them which he is unexpectedly and often cruelly called 

 upon to meet. Dismayed, crushed, almost stupefied, he is at 

 last to see his farm, stock, implements, home, — every tiling, 

 — in the icy hand of the sheriff, all swept away, except the 

 paltry allowance made by tlie State to an insolvent debtor. 



