MARKET GARDENS. 375 



and management of the human machinery. In the next place, 

 here there is no want of capital with persons who undertake 

 such occupations ; and it is applied with liberality wherever 

 there is a chance of using it to profit. This is a great consid 

 eration, wherever capital may be safely and advantageously 

 applied to land. We often hear the counsel given to cultivate 

 a little land well, rather than a large extent of land imperfectly. 

 In the main, this is sound advice on the score of profit. But in 

 agriculture, viewed as a commercial transaction, the profits will 

 correspond with the amount of capital invested or employed. 

 Large returns are to be expected only from cultivating a large 

 extent of land ; or, in other words, pursuing agriculture as a man, 

 who would command success, pursues any other branch of trade, 

 by devoting his time, talents, and zeal to it, and applying all the 

 means within his reach to its advancement. While 



&quot; Little boats should keep near shore, 

 Vessels large may venture more.&quot; 



The man who, as above, can cultivate one acre of ground 

 with such eminent success, may cultivate one hundred with 

 similar profit, provided he can give to it the same requisite 

 attention, provided a sufficiency of labor and manure are equally 

 attainable, and provided, likewise, the market is equally sure and 

 favorable for the disposal of his products. Whether capital can 

 in any particular case be profitably applied to agriculture, must 

 depend upon a great variety of local and temporary circum 

 stances. It is so with commerce, and with most other branches 

 of business. No human power or skill can control the vicissi 

 tudes of the climate and the weather ; but the contingencies on 

 which the success of agriculture depends are perhaps not so 

 great as those on which the success of mercantile transactions 

 depends. It is idle to expect reward without labor, fruit with 

 out seed, profit without risk, success without effort, unless in 

 those games of mere chance, of which sober men will beware, 

 and in which there are always vastly more losers than winners, 

 and many more blanks than prizes. The great want with most 

 of our farmers is clearly want of capital, to apply to the land in 

 labor, or manure, or in the way of permanent improvements of 

 drainage and irrigation, which change at once the whole face of 

 a country. The main elements of success in agriculture are the 

 same as in any other profession, skill, judgment, application, 



