AGRICULTURE OE MASSACHUSETTS. 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING. 



From an Address before the Essex Agricultural Society. 



BY DANIEL SAUNDERS, JR. 



How, and in what manner, agriculture may be placed in its 

 true position, and its labors fully rewarded, are questions which 

 interest not only farmers, but the whole community. Why is 

 it that while success attends upon the labor of those engaged in 

 commerce, trade and manufactures, the farmer quietly plods on 

 year after year, accumulating but slowly ; and frequently at 

 the expiration of tliirty, forty, or even fifty years, of hard work, 

 finds that he is rewarded for all his toil with but a little more 

 than enough to suffice for the wants of his declining years, when 

 labor has become too heavy to be continuously carried on ? Is 

 the fault inherent in the farm, or is it in its management ? 

 Does the want of success commensurate with labor bestowed 

 depend upon circumstances beyond the control of the laborer, 

 or does it depend upon the absence of those elements which are 

 conducive to success in other pursuits ? 



In determining these questions, another question arises. 

 What are tlie elements of success ? The experience of the 

 world, and the individual history of the majority of those who 

 have become prosperous in the attainment of wealth, and great 

 in usefulness, answer, that success depends upon energetic and 

 persevering labor, directed by knowledge accompanied with 

 courage, economy, and integrity. Any man with good health 

 and moderate mental capacity, with these elements properly 



