ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING. 13 



ing it, made by the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture, as contained in his interesting report of his visit 

 to Europe in 1862, a report well worth reading, both from the 

 pleasure and profit that may be derived from its perusal. 



It is not to be expected that our farmers, generally, can as 

 yet compete in wealth, or the ability to make improvements, 

 upon the same scale with the rich farmers of the best portions 

 of Europe, and for the very reasons that our farmers have not 

 for a long series of years given tlie same importance to farming 

 that European farmers have ; they have not applied the same 

 energy and talent in this business which they have done. Other 

 branches of industry have been more attractive in this country. 

 Fortunes acquired by bold and successful dashes have so capti- 

 vated the imagination of our young men, that they have rushed 

 from the slower and more quiet I'outine of farm life into the 

 whirling eddies of speculation and trade, out of which they 

 hope to emerge with wealth sufficient to return once again to 

 the old homestead, where they may enjoy their fortunes in the 

 peaceful retirement of rural life, outside of the bustle and 

 tumult by day, and the anxious thought by night, which 

 constantly abide by the man seeking riches with hasty steps. 



Let our young men be content to apply to the farm the same 

 energy, the same zeal, the same labor, the same learning, which 

 they are willing to devote to the more hazardous business which 

 now engrosses the attention of so many of them ; and although 

 they may not reap wealth so abundantly as some of the 

 neighbors engaged in other pursuits, yet they will find less 

 disappointments. There will be fewer upon whom fortune will 

 frown, and many more who will obtain that competence which 

 suffices for all needful wants, and sufficient for a generous 

 liberality. Nor will the other branches of trade, mechanics, 

 commerce, or manufacture, suffer by increased attention to 

 agriculture. Thrifty agriculture will demand more labor-saving 

 machinery, better farm implements, more manufactures of all 

 kinds, induce emigration from the overstocked population of 

 the great cities of other countries, and will give increased 

 impetus to all business ; for upon agriculture all other business 

 is based and supported. 



Upon the subject of integrity, as useful and necessary to 

 prosperity in our mutual dealings and 4;ransactions with each 



