12 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



fancy horses and showy equipages ; these must be regarded as 

 so many expenditures for personal gratification ; and ought no 

 more to be included in the outlay for which the farm should 

 yield returns, than the amounts which are expended for pictures 

 to be hung in the parlor, and for concert tickets, or in visiting 

 Saratoga, the White Mountains, and the sea-side, should be 

 reckoned as capital invested in business, on which the ledger 

 must sliow a fair balance of profits. 



Moreover (and none know it better than do our business 

 men,) the amount of returns justly to be expected from an 

 investment, depends somewhat on the safety of the latter ; if it 

 be perfectly secure, the income may very properly be much 

 Waller than where there is more or less risk. But if this 

 principle be applied to the matter of farming, it will follow that 

 the profits derived from it ouglit to be smaller than those of 

 most other forms of business in which capital is employed. 

 Nothing can be safer than a well-advised investment in a farm ; 

 since the intrinsic value of tlie land is subject to none of the 

 mutations which affect almost every other form of investment, 

 in the midst of those political and financial crises which sweep 

 over our land like successive tornadoes. 



Again, it is worthy of notice that all the returns received from 

 an' outlay of capital, are not in the form of money. An expen- 

 diture made in one direction may result in honor and influence 

 — as when an aspirant for public favor contributes to an elec- 

 tioneering fund. Made in another direction, the return may be 

 in the form of personal enjoyment — the gratification of taste in 

 the appearance of a splendid equipage or in works of art, as 

 paintings and sculptures or architecture. But why should not 

 the pleasure afforded by the appearance of flocks and herds of 

 fine animals, by the sight of grassy meadows and growing 

 crops, waving harvests and flourishing orchards and purple 

 vineyards ; why should not the enjoyment which these things 

 always afford to the lover of nature, be regarded as an impor- 

 tant item in reckoning with the farm ? I think myself not 

 entirely a stranger to the fascination there is for certain minds 

 in works of art. I am not wanting in those impressions which 

 the artist seeks to awaken, when with a master's hand, he 

 rounds the marble into magic forms of life, or makes the canvas 

 glow with the varied features of the landscape ; but were I 



