FARMING AS A BUSINESS. 31 



ings. The demand for skilled and intelligent labor is and must 

 be for years to come, in our growing country, in excess of the 

 supply ; and the first few years of early manhood cannot be 

 regarded as mis-spent, nor can the labor crowded into them be 

 as hard, or the anxiety of life so wearing, if given to that 

 mechanical employment which most naturally and easily prom- 

 ises a fair return, as would surely be the case, if, in the haste to 

 embark on his own account, the over-zealous young man were 

 to plunge into farming or other business, destitute alike of 

 experience and capital. 



I might dwell upon these topics almost indefinitely, for they 

 are directly in the channel in which the thoughts of a business 

 man most naturally run ; but, alas ! there is a limit even to the 

 patience of a farmer, and there must be a corresponding one to 

 an agricultural address. The suggestions which have been 

 made are such as have seemed to me best calculated to serve the 

 farmer and lighten his cares and toil. They have been applied 

 and their value tested in all directions, save perhaps in farming ; 

 and I can see no reason why system and accuracy are not 

 equally applicable to that as to other branches of business. 



Agriculture is the most important interest in the world, 

 because it is the basis upon which all others rest. Ask a shrewd 

 merchant as to the prospects of business in days to come, and 

 he points to the crop reports for his reply. Improvement and 

 progress in agriculture, then, is improvement and progress in 

 all directions ; and it really seems that it is or would be a long 

 stride forward in the direction of progress, at least, could the 

 farmer, by the introduction of the system and method which, in 

 other branches of business are found indispensable to success, 

 but which in farming are, to say the least, not common, be 

 enabled to see and know that labor, which in this direction 

 means success and rich returns, in that is utterly wasted and 

 thrown away or worse. 



Complaint is often made that the boys leave the farm ; that 

 other modes of life have greater attraction for them. I doubt 

 not that it is so, and I know it will continue to be so, till you 

 reverse the conditions and make the attractions of a farm life 

 greater than can be found elsewhere. This you can only do by 

 giving the brains more and the hands less to do. We live in an 

 age of thought, and we must not expect, after lavishing money 



