372 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



that the number of young men, native born, who propose to 

 follow farming, is equal to the number of aged, and middle- 

 aged farmers who are passing away ? And if so, must not 

 your farms pass into the hands of capitalists, and be formed 

 into large estates, or become the residences of retired gentle- 

 men or amateur farmers ? And so far as our prosperity as a 

 community is concerned, it were much better that neither of 

 these results should take place, but rather that the number of 

 resident farmers, owners of the soil they till, should so increase 

 that farms should be divided rather than united. As a general 

 statement, a community is prosperous so long as the number 

 of its intelligent laborers increases, and it ceases to be prosper- 

 ous whenever the number of such laborers diminishes. Now, 

 we can hardly conceive of a course which will diminish the 

 number of such laborers more rapidly, than for our young men 

 to abandon agriculture as a pursuit; the policy is an erroneous 

 one, both to individuals and the public. 



Farming, in the larger part of this country, is a very differ- 

 ent pursuit from what it was twenty years ago. It will not 

 seem invidious for me to say that more skill, more enterprise, 

 more science are now required than formerly. But this fact 

 need be no discouragement ; for as more is required, so more 

 has been given. A young man can qualify himself as easily 

 now as formerly, so much have the means of information been 

 multiplied and perfected. But the farmer has been taught to 

 feel the force of that fact which has done more than anything 

 else to advance the physical prosperity of the world. I mean 

 cotnpeiition. Men may fear it, they may seek to avoid it, it 

 may produce cases of individual ruin, but it still is the cause of 

 success in too many instances to allow us to despise it, or even 

 to lament its existence. At the bar, it is a stimulus equal in 

 force to the interest of the client, or even to the amount of 

 the fee. In all the professions, there are men of talents who 

 are regarded as the leaders, and it is the constant object of all 

 their brethren to reach the height on which they stand. This 

 competition, for such it is, tends to develop the entire strength 

 and talent of the professions. So, in commerce, we have 

 struggled on against the advantages of long experience en- 



