No. 4.] HARNESS YOUR FORCES. 9 



industry offers as good opportunities as any in the world for 

 skilled fingers ; that here is the best opening for intelligent 

 research ; and that the man who tills his farm by the best 

 light of the present age is to be master of the situation, 

 because of that free, full life in touch with nature. 



Stop measuring the industry by the failures. New England 

 has been cursed by the cry of aljandoned farms, while in 

 every valley, village and town there are abandoned indus- 

 tries never mentioned. Ninety per cent of the business men 

 fail, while less than five per cent of the farms are lost. 

 More than ninety per cent of the legal profession struggle 

 for a subsistence, yet the farmer's table is always loaded. 

 The average salary of your clergymen in some of the larger 

 denominations is less than $400 yearly, — not enough to 

 cover rent, fuel and the products of your poorer farms. 

 Dignify the industry, and it will dignify the man. 



Why are not the study and investigation which steadily 

 build up a herd as ennobling as that which sustains a 

 factory ? The man who in the process of the years develops 

 such a herd, every one capable of producing ten thousand 

 pounds of four per cent milk, is as great an artist as he 

 whose canvas is hung on the walls of the noted galleries. 

 The captains of industry have been heralded by public senti- 

 ment ; but not all of these giants of finance have added to 

 the essential comforts of the world as have the men whose 

 toil has opened the door to the agricultural possibilities of 

 the present season. The real captains of industry are not 

 those who manipulate stocks and bonds, but those who take 

 the forces of nature and work them over for the blessing of 

 man. In both cases these men succeeded only through the 

 harnessing of their entire forces for the conquering of the 

 obstacles in their paths. 



Agriculture as an industry has been minimized until the 

 scrubby oaks tell the story of neglected acres. Massachu- 

 setts has agricultural possibilities beyond the imagination of 

 the most enthusiastic, but it will never pass the bounds set 

 by its champions. It is all false that New England must be 

 given over to other industries. The heaviest burdens are 

 those made by would-be friends. Harness your forces to 



