58 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



and sloth. ' ' That periods of high prices are suc- 

 ceeded by periods of low prices. That if we eat 

 to surfeit we must needs fast. That if we over 

 expand in business transactions a period of con- 

 traction with its distress must come. The stern 

 law of compensation obtains in every transaction 

 of business and life. Some things we can change 

 or reform. Many we cannot. Let us remove 

 every hindrance to the business of farming that 

 can be removed. 



The following perfectly true account which can 

 be verified, taken from the New York World, 

 shows that the farmer of the present century, with 

 its apparent evils, has, after all, much for which 

 to be thankful, when he considers his lot with the 

 lot of the farmer living in the past ages. 



"A countryman living just beyond the outskirts of London, 

 drove to the metropolis one day to order a few provisions, etc. 



"The countryman first went to the nearest cobbler's. There 

 he bought a good pair of shoes. Not shoddy footwear, care- 

 lessly turned out or even machine made, but hand-sewed and 

 of fine, strong leather. For this pair of shoes he paid just 

 seven cents. 



"Next he drove to a butcher stall in Smithfield. There he 

 bought a sheep, a dozen chickens and ten pounds of beef. 

 For the sheep he paid ten cents. For the chickens he paid 

 one and one-half cents apiece, or eighteen cents for the dozen. 

 The ten pounds of beef cost him a nickel. For beef w#s 

 half a cent a pound. 



"Stowing away his purchases in his big wagon, the farmer 

 next stopped at a fish stall, where for ten cents he bought 

 twenty-five big codfish. 



"His visit to the grain merchant cost him more. For he 

 was forced to pay fifteen cents for a bushel of rye a sum 

 out of all proportion to his earlier purchases. It was cheaper, 

 you see z to buy meat than the rye bread to eat with it. 



