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delay of payment. But there is another circumstance in this 

 case which is not always considered. In many instances, the 

 trader will purchase the produce of the farmer only upon what 

 is called store pay — that is, making his payment in goods from 

 his store. The farmer, in this way, is not only obliged to sell 

 at the lowest market price and pay the trader his profit upon his 

 goods, but he and his family are induced to purchase a great 

 many things which they do not need and which they would be 

 better without. This leads likewise to the keeping of an open 

 account ; which, if not most rigidly watched and frequently set- 

 tled, is as sure as fate to surprize the farmer with an unexpected 

 and heavy balance against him. This usually produces ill blood 

 between both parties, leading to vexatious lawsuits and all their 

 miserable consequences ; and so far as any further comfort or 

 success in life are concerned, a farmer might as well see at his 

 elbow a personage, whom it may not be civil to name, as get 

 into the fangs of the -law, or have a sheriff npon his premises. 

 They are alike, equally ruthless and inexorable. Unless therefore 

 in the rare instances, and there are some such, of men disposed 

 to deal with perfect honor and integrity, a village store in the 

 vicinity of a farm must but too often be regarded as a precursor 

 to debt and ruin to the neighborhood. 



The farmer should as far as possible sell only for cash ; and 

 endeavor to supply his wants, and those of his family, wholly 

 from the farm. He should beware of debt under all circum- 

 stances, excepting for property — such as land for example — 

 whose value is not likely to be reduced, and which is susceptible 

 of immediate improvement and profit. He must recollect that, 

 at least in New England, the returns of his husbandry come in 

 various and small forms : and that it will never be easv for him 

 to discharge any large debt but by a slow and gradual process 

 from the products of his farm. Especially must he remember, 

 that his principal capital is labor ; that he can never afford to 

 support many hands which are idle, inefficient or unproductive ; 

 that the drones do not only not fill but exhaust the hive and / 

 consume the products of the working bees ; and that an ex- / 

 pense avoided is a double gain. _y 



