340 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



upon to perform. I suppose that a man can lift an ox, if he 

 will begin and lift the animal every day from a calf up ; but 

 if he should ask his son to go out and lift the ox without 

 previous experience, all would depend upon the son's strength. 

 He may succeed, but there are a good many chances against 

 him. There is some chance for the exercise of charity, 

 therefore, even with the rich. 



Poverty, then, has some advantages as a birthplace, but 

 is of no earthly use to those who have not the will, the 

 courasre and the endurance in them to rise out of their 

 low estate. I by no means recommend it as an essential 

 to success, I am only not insensible to its advantages. 

 Nor would I be understood as implying that economy 

 is by any means confined to the poor. There is the 

 same relative economy in the case of the man who earns 

 ten dollars and spends nine dollars as is manifested by 

 the man who earns a thousand dollars and spends nine 

 hundred dollars, — one-tenth of the income has been saved 

 in either case. Or reverse the figures, and one tenth of 

 the income has been squandered or lost. Economy is an 

 all-important habit, not only for the financial success which 

 must inevitably result from living within one's income, but 

 the whole future is also valuable in the strength of char- 

 acter which such a course gives a man. It makes more of a 

 man of him ; and this is by no means a small consideration, 

 when we consider success in life in its broadest sense. The 

 economical man will look out especially for the thousand and 

 one little leaks to which the farm is subject ; and these little 

 things may turn the scale, — indeed, they often have turned 

 it from prospective failure to assured success. 



Virtue. 



A high moral standard, freedom from vice and bad 

 habits, are essentials to the highest success always. No less 

 is this true among farmers than among other classes. Let 

 us hope that New England farmers may never be less noted 

 than they are at present in this respect of high standard, 

 but that rather the future may be an improvement upon 

 the past. 



