296 INDIAN CORN. 



The man who should employ a carpenter at three 

 dollars a day to drive nails, and put him in a position 

 where he could only hit every tenth nail on the head, 

 would be very likely to complain of the expense of 

 labor, but he would hardly assign that as an excuse 

 for his folly ; on the contrary, he would find in the 

 price of labor the strongest argument for reforming 

 his practice. Let him place his man in a situation 

 where every blow drives a nail home, and he will not 

 consider the work dearly paid for, whether it costs one 

 dollar a day or three. 



It is proper, however, to remark, and it is gratify- 

 ing to know, that this uncalculating and unprofitable 

 mode of husbandry is by no means universal, in any 

 section of the country, and that there are throughout 

 the West many enlightened farmers to whom these 

 strictures have no application. There is, indeed, 

 through all that country, a marked and increasing 

 tendency toward a better system of culture. The 

 progress of recent years proves that the evil com- 

 plained of is steadily diminishing and disappearing 

 under the influence of diffused intelligence, of the in- 

 creasing number of farmers' clubs, and of other multi- 

 plied facilities and valuable sources of useful knowl- 



In proportion as men advance in reading and 

 thinking, they gradually acquire the habit of getting 

 a larger amount of products from a less amount of 

 land; and our Western farmers are already begin- 

 ning to discover that a more careful, calculating, and 

 concentrated culture will produce more corn from an 



