ADDRESS. 



There is, perhaps, no subject Avhich has been so long before 

 the public mind, upon which there yet remains so great a de- 

 gree of misunderstanding and confusion, as upon the true re- 

 lation of agriculture to the other great industries of the world, 

 considered both as to its importance and as to its desirability 

 as a vocation. To bear out this assertion, witness the query 

 so often put to us as a crucial test, " Does farming pay?" 



As if agriculture, an industry coeval with the foundation of 

 civilized society, and underlying its very existence, were in its 

 multiform phases thus to be summed up and disposed of; thus 

 to be weighed in the financial balance of the smallest brain, 

 perhaps, forsooth, to be found wanting. As well might be 

 propounded the question, " Does mercantile business pay?" 



The answer would not be different. Trade is a necessity 

 evolved from the conditions of civilization, and admits of no 

 general reduction to a financial basis. It Avill or will not pay, 

 accordino; to the circumstances under which it is carried on, 

 and according to the ability of the trader. 



Any view which regards a given pursuit as attended with 

 a fixed rate of remuneration, determined by the nature of that 

 pursuit, is necessarily false ; for as surely as water seeks its 

 level, the same amount and quality of labor, whether of brain 

 or muscle, will in no instance long receive other than the same 

 pecuniary compensation, wliatever be the industry upon which 

 such labor is expended. 



