MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



estimate of the scheme as a business opera- 

 tion. 



It is certain that by a special dispensation 

 of Providence in favor of those who make up 

 the bulk of the human family, a man may se- 

 cure a simple livelihood in agricultural pur- 

 suits, with less of energy, less of promptitude, 

 less of calculation, and greater unthrift gen- 

 erally, than would be compatible with even this 

 scanty aim, in any other calling of life. With 

 a respectable crop insured by only a moderate 

 amount of attention and activity, the tempta- 

 tion to a lazy indiifiference, and a sleepy pas- 

 sivity, is immense. There are farmers who 

 yield to the temptation gracefully and com- 

 pletely. The stir, the wakefulness, the promp- 

 titude that seize upon new issues, develop new 

 enterprises, create new demands, are as foreign 

 to the majority of landholders, as a ringing 

 discussion of new topics, or a juicy haunch of 

 Southdown, to their tables. 



But whatever may be the triumphs of busi- 

 ness tact — and of a just apportionment of 

 capital, between land and implements, or fertil- 

 izers, the real question with a man of any con- 

 siderable degree of cultivation who meditates 

 country life,— is not whether legitimate at- 

 tention will secure a tolerable balance sheet, 



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