324 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



any section an inappropriate crop, or to call art into compe- 

 tition and unequal strife with nature. While exercising an 

 instinctive judgment in their calling, they are always ready 

 to enter upon any inquiry which may afford new light and 

 open new paths. To no agricultural community on earth 

 can the student of economy address himself with more assur- 

 ance that his views will be considered and his theories tried. 

 It is indeed difficult to determine whether the American 

 farmer displays more activity and skill on the fields he culti- 

 vates or in* those wider fields upon which he enters with the 

 scientist and the theorist. It is not surprising, therefore, 

 that the careful and observant student of social and civil 

 economy should be tempted to lay his views before so intel- 

 ligent and appreciative an audience. Nor should he be 

 disappointed if his theories are slowly adopted and carefully 

 investigated. And it is curious and interesting to witness 

 the modifications which take place in the agricultural 

 industry : how a crop prevails under favorable circum- 

 stances for a period, and declines under adversity ; how, as 

 interests require, the application of labor varies ; how the 

 wholesale and somewhat rude forming of a sparsely settled 

 region will be converted into the most ingenious processes 

 by being brought into contact with wealth and a populous 

 community. And this law no agricultural theory, no agri- 

 cultural experiment, can defy. And yet in this lies the 

 farmer's temptation. The beaten path grows dull, and he 

 longs to leave it. Investigation and experiment are full of 

 charms and promise, and he becomes a willing follower. 

 His fields he devotes to a new and untried crop, his stalls to 

 a novel industry, — too often to his cost. Let me illus- 

 trate. 



Eor many years the New England market has been sup- 

 plied with beef, mutton and pork from the West, to a very 

 considerable extent. It is now proposed to establish beef 

 factories, so called, in New England ; and, as I understand, 

 to fatten beef in these factories on the products of our corn- 

 fields converted into meal and ensilage. This question I 

 will not discuss myself; but I will give you such facts as I 

 have with regard to the production of beef elsewhere, and 

 leave you to judge of the profit of a beef factory. Before 



