12 



to the change required in the agricultare of our section. The 

 crops which have been referred to, have been selected not as 

 the only crops to be grown, but as the principal staples for the 

 market. Our farmers, in the necessary rotation of crops, will 

 find it for their advantage to raise more or less of the products 

 which are unprofitable in the market. They will grow some 

 crops for their own consumption, which they can purchase 

 cheaper. But these crops will be subsidiary to the main pro- 

 ductions. They will also find with the further growth of our 

 own and the other sections, that additional changes in the 

 varieties of crops to be cultivated will be required. We are 

 advancing fast and far. The various and rapidly increasing 

 industrial pursuits in which the people of the country are 

 engaged, act and re-act upon each other, and all are undergoing 

 constant modifications with the wonderful developments of every 

 year. 



Thus the farmer of New England is reaping his share of the 

 blessings which the system of reciprocity organized by our 

 fathers, has conferred upon the people of the country. But 

 this the farmer does not always appreciate. Instead of com- 

 paring his condition with that of the farmer of half a century 

 ago, he is apt to contrast the profits of his fields with the 

 profits which, at the present time, capital employed in other 

 industries yields. He sees fortunes made in trade and manu- 

 factures which he can never hope to realize from his farm, and 

 it tends to discontent. He even concludes that farming in 

 New England is a doomed occupation. But if he will survey 

 the whole field, and consider all the circumstances and contin- 

 gencies of the different occupations, he will find much for his 

 encouragement. It is an accepted business axiom that profits 

 are in proportion to the risks. The risks which the men who 

 make large fortunes incur, are seen in the wrecks which are 

 strewed around us. Indeed, the risks of the money making 

 avocations, as they are called, are such, that if prosecuted for 

 a long period, financial ruin is the rule and not the exception. 



The farmer does not make large profits. His capital is 

 subject to no risks, except from his own extravagance or mis- 



