40 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



among us would like to exchange their calling for some other 

 if they could. They remain, reluctantly, for the same reason 

 that the painter gave for turning physician. "Because," said 

 he, "my former business exhibited my mistakes in too glaring 

 a manner, therefore I have now chosen one in which they will 

 all be buried." It is these kind of farmers who do so much 

 to prevent real progress in the business, doing as little as 

 possible themselves, and attempting to discourage others from 

 carrying out new ideas and keeping up with the natural 

 advancement of the time in which they live. You may hear 

 them, like frogs in a swamp, continually croaking, and the 

 burden of their refrain is, that "farming don't pay." Go into 

 almost any district in New England and ask the loafers, 

 sluggards and hand-to-mouth livers, why they do not go to 

 work, improve, bring up their farms, and they will tell you, 

 "the soil is worn out," "can't raise anything to profit," and 

 you will find, as like begets like, the more poor places and 

 sottish farms about, the more of this laggard class ; remind- 

 ing one of the country trader, who, purchasing goods in 

 Boston, was asked if he did not want some half-mourning 1 

 goods. "I think I will take a lot," was the reply, "as many 

 people up our way appear to be about half dead." But just 

 let a circus come along, or a horse-trot take place, and these 

 dry aud lazy bones will rattle along, leaving the work at home 

 half accomplished ; and to see them and hear their cheery talk 

 on the road and' on the scene of action, a bystander would 

 consider them anions: the smartest folks around, belong-ins:, 

 indeed, to that class who are born at a very early period of 

 life. 



In the ordinary commercial point of view, farming does 

 not pay; that is, it is not a business in which great ventures 

 can be made and riches quickly and easily accumulated ; and 

 the Creator never intended, so far as we can judge by past 

 history of nations, that agriculture should be a money-profit- 

 able pursuit. From the early patriarchs down to our fore- 

 fathers in New England, the tillers of the soil have been rich 

 only in herds and flocks, large families, virtuous homes, and 

 contented with pouring out from their homes those who, 

 desiring more enterprise and luxury, should build cities, 

 navigate the ocean, start new enterprises and amass wealth. 



