WILL FARMING PAY ? 17 



lay for labor, including picking, was less than $300 

 per annum ; but it had cost something to make this 

 field what it then was. Say that he had spent $1,000 

 per acre in under-draining, enriching and tilling this 

 field, to bring it to this condition, including the cost 

 of his plants, and still there must have been a clear 

 profit here of at least $300 per acre. 



I might multiply illustrations ; but let the forego- 

 ing suffice. I readily admit that shiftless farming 

 doesn't pay that poor crops don't pay that it is 

 hard work to make money by farming without some 

 capital that frost, or hail, or drouth, or floods, or 

 insects, may blast the farmer's hopes, after he has 

 done his best to deserve and achieve success ; but I 

 insist that, as a general proposition, GOOD Farming 

 DOES pay that few pursuits afford as good a pros- 

 pect, as full an assurance, of reward for intelligent, 

 energetic, persistent effort, as this does. 



I am not arguing that every man should be a 

 farmer. Other vocations are useful and necessary, 

 and many pursue them with advantage to them- 

 selves and to others. But those pursuits are apt to 

 be modified by time, and some of them may yet be 

 entirely dispensed with, which Farming never can 

 be. It is the first and most essential of human pur- 

 suits ; it is every one's interest that this calling 

 should be honored and prosperous. If not adequately 

 recompensed, I judge that is because it is not wisely 

 and energetically followed. My aim is to show 

 how it may be pursued with satisfaction and profit. 



