12 Address. 



true that the work is varied in kind and healthful as a whole, but 

 then, much of it is of an unpleasant character. He has often to do 

 very unpleasant work at a very uncomfortable time, and then each 

 and every year he sees some of this come to naught. There is no 

 year when all crops pay. A crop may be sown and tended but 

 drouths may pinch it, or storms and insects destroy it. Animals that 

 have been watched and reared and cared for two, three or more years 

 are often lost. From the nature of the property and the kind of 

 labor and care bestowed upon it, its loss comes nearer to the per- 

 sonal feelings of the owner than the loss of money or goods to the 

 man in trade, and there is no year that does not bring some of these 

 forms of bad luck for which he feels he is not to blame, that it is not 

 due to a lack of industry, sagacity or forethought, but which is in 

 some way related to the locality. It is natural, therefore, that at 

 times he should feel that if he were somewhere else, this loss would 

 not have happened. 



But each place has its advantages as well as disadvantages. The 

 wise farmer takes advantage of those conditions whose averages are 

 favorable. 



The farmer in the States I have cited in the West has a soil of 

 greater native fertility, it is easier tilled, he can use machinery to a 

 better advantage, his land is rising in value, and a part of his work 

 is perhaps not so hard. The New England farmer has better markets 

 for a greater variety of production, cheaper clothing, tools and imple- 

 ments, from being near the great centres of manufacturing, and the 

 many advantages incident to an older community, such as churches, 

 schools, etc. The matter of markets is, however, the great one. 

 Persons "engaged in agriculture" constitute 11.3 per cent of the total 

 population of Ohio, 14.2 per cent, in Illinois, and 16.7 in Indiana, 

 while in Connecticut they amount to but 7.2 per cent, and in Massa- 

 chusetts only 3.6 percent., consequently there is a sale, at some price, 

 for everything he can and does raise. In this State somebody of the 

 ninety-six wants everything that the remaining four can grow. The 

 farmer of Illinois burns his straw, the one in Massachusetts sells his 

 for a good price, and so of everything he can produce. The western 

 farmer can grow his crop easier but it is harder to sell it, and much 

 that he does grow he cannot sell well. The eastern man finds it more 

 expensive to grow his crop, but he is sure he can sell what he has. 



So in spite of western competition and fertile prairies and great 

 States, New England farming will go on, and will pay ; her slopes 

 will still be green with pastures, and her cattle sleek and fat. In 



