9 



pioneer, having once for all placed himself undfer conditions 

 of privation and self-denial, is compelled to stav, or suffer the 

 mortification of a retreat ; while the New Englander must 

 form and control the drift of circumstance, and from amidst 

 the temptations and enervating influences of advanced civili- 

 zation, stand forth strong and earnest in pursuit of a success 

 only to be earned at the "price of eternal vigilance." 



I have said the pioneer must go far ; and this includes the 

 fact, not everywhere recognized, that the older settled portions- 

 of the AVest are no longer to be advantageously tilled by the 

 so-called skimming process. That no soil can long remain in 

 its natural condition while growing crops, is a self-evident 

 truth ; and to supply the exhausted elements of fertility, cap- 

 ital, is necessary. xVnd thus, it is seen that with the one ex- 

 ception just mentioned, of stock-raising where pasture is 

 common, agriculture, as much as any other pursuit, is con- 

 cerned with capital, which here represents not only labor but; 

 fertilizing power. 



The amount of capital that may be profitably employed irk 

 working a given farm, though not a simple question is yet 

 roughly determined by the price of land, which depends upon 

 locality (all of which I shall endeavor to show farther on) ^ 

 and thus agriculture is reduced to the same basis as any other 

 industry upon which capital is engaged, the pecuniary returns 

 depending, other things being equal, upon the amount of cap- 

 ital invested ; which amount is here denoted by the value of 

 the land employed, together with the cost of working it. 



The main difficulty in the comprehension of this question 

 lies in the fact that a man is apt to think, because a farm is 

 large, that it ought to pay, no matter how little it is worth. 

 A small amount of money up in New Hampshire will buy a 

 large amount of land. Many a farm in New England is not 

 worth $1,200 ; and the wonder is, how, upon so little capital, 

 large families are maintained. The small returns of a fjirni 

 that, never fertile, yet for generations to come, will furnish 

 an humble support to the husbandman content to receive it as 



