155 



the object, that it is advisable to extend the cultivation as far 

 as the means of the farmer will allow him to go — this, how- 

 ever, always upon the supposition that the crops which he cul- 

 tivates pay a profit. This is obviously the case with those crops 

 to which we have referred. In a systematic and improved ag- 

 riculture the same rules hold as in any branch of trade or art. 

 Where the stock in trade is small, and the attention and labor 

 bestowed upon its management are likewise small, the gains will 

 be proportional. There is this advantage however in agricul- 

 ture that, although it is not wholly without its risks and uncer- 

 tainties, under judicious management they are less than in al- 

 most any other business whatever. 



XVII. Domestic Economy. — In traveUing over New Eng- y( 

 land, one is frequently struck with examples of thrift, comfort t 

 and humble independence, the direct results of industry, sobri-, v, 

 ety and frugality, as instructive as they are beautiful. A bene- 

 volent mind always contemplates them with unmingled pleas- 

 ure. They present themselves often in circumstances to ordi- 

 nary view the most inauspicious. The conditions, which ap- 

 pear most unfriendly to success, seem, to constitute the very 

 grounds or occasions of it. The courage is kindled and the 

 resolution strengthened in proportion to the difficulties to be 

 met ; and, in a manner the most encouraging to honest labor 

 and strict temperance, they show the power of man, in a high 

 degree, to command his own fortune. Massachusetts is full of 

 these examples. I do not know that they are not as common 

 in other places. It is impossible however that they should ex- 

 ist but in a condition of freedom, where a man has a freehold 

 in the soil ; where, unawed either by overgrown wealth or op- 

 pressive power, he wears the port and has the spirit of a man ; 

 and where, above all things else, he has the voluntary direction 

 of his own powers, and a perfect security in the enjoyment of 

 the fruits of his own toil. 



Example 1. — It will not be without its use, if it does no 

 more than present to the imagination a charming picture of ru- 



