Citizens Retiring to the Country 207 



malic economy, upon a good soil, may enable, and does 

 enable some gentlemen farmers lhal we could name, lo 

 make a good profit out of their land, but citizens who 

 launch boldly into farming, hiring farm laborers at high 

 prices, and trusting operations to others that should be 

 managed under I he master's eye, are very likely to find 

 Iheir farms a sinking fund that will drive them back into 

 business again. 



To be happy in any business or occupation (and country 

 life on a farm is a matter of business), we must have some 

 kind of success in it; and there is no success without profit, 

 and no profit without practical knowledge of farming. 



The lesson that we would deduce from these reflections 

 is this; that no mere amateur should buy a large farm for 

 a country residence with the expectation of finding pleasure 

 and profit in it for the rest of his life, unless, like some 

 citizens that we have known - - rare exceptions - - they have 

 a genius for all manner of business, and can master the 

 whole of farming, as they would learn a running hand in 

 six easy lessons. Farming, in the older states, where the 

 natural wealth of the soil has been exhausted, is not a 

 profitable business for amateurs - - but quite the reverse. 

 And a citizen who has a sufficient income without farming 

 had better not damage it by engaging in so expensive 

 an amusement. 



"But we must have something to do; we have been busy 

 near all our lives, and cannot retire into the country to fold 

 our hands and sit in the sunshine to be idle." Precisely 

 so. But you need not therefore ruin yourself on a large 

 farm. Do not be ambitious of being great landed propri- 

 etors. Assume that you need occupation and interest, and 

 buy a small piece of ground - - a few acres only - - as few 

 as you please - - but without any regard for profit. Leave 

 that to those who have learned farming in a more practical 

 school. You think, perhaps, that you can find nothing to 

 do on a few acres of ground. But that is the greatest of 

 mistakes. A half a dozen acres, the capacities of which 

 are fully developed, will give you more pleasure than five 



