our leading papers that, owing to the enormous | 

 amount of land io this country, it would be 250 

 years before there was any real necessity for 

 scientific agriculture. The writer evidently at- 

 tached some technical and definite meaning to 

 the phrase "scientific agriculture." The truth 

 is, however, that what would be scientific farm- 

 ing in England, might not be scientific farming 

 in America; what would be scientific farming 

 in New England or New York might not be sci- 

 entific farming in Kansas or California. He is 

 the scientific farmer who makes the most of 

 his labor and capital. And there'is just as much 

 necessity for scientific farming to-day as there 

 will be 250 years hence. And true scientific 

 farming will be just as profitable at the present 

 time as it ever has been in the past or ever will 

 be in the future. 



I greatly mistake the signs of the times if, in 

 the near future, we shall not find as many, and 

 as true scientific farmers in America as are to be 

 found anywhere in the world. 



Take up an English agricultural paper and, no 

 matter what subject is under discussion, you 

 will not read far before allusion will be made to 

 the question of "Tenant Rights." A farmer's 

 club cannot discuss the science and practice of 

 feeding stock without getting excited over the 

 mult-tax. "If we could feed malt," they say, 

 we could then raise cheap beef and mutton. If 

 we could get compensation for our unexhausted 

 improvements we could employ our skill and 

 capital to advantage. We are not without our 

 troubles here. We have some burdens that are 

 bard to bear. But, at any rate, we are our own 

 land owners. Any improvements we make are 

 made on our own land. Our land is not entailed. 

 We can transfer it as easily as any other proper- 

 ty. 



We sometimes grumble because our best 

 farm laborers so soon leave us. They want 

 farms of their own. I have a man who has 

 wor ned for me 12 years, and who has now, out of 

 feis savings, bought a nice farm of his own. I 

 lose a good man, but he will work quite as hard 

 lor himself as he did for me and put more 

 thought, care and skill into his labor. It may 

 be a lp>s to me but it is a gain to the country. 

 He will be able to earn more money and will 

 have more to spend. 



American farmers, as a class, work harder 

 than any other farmers in the world. We oc- 

 casionally find a drone in the hive, but on the 

 whole, we are a nation of workers, and it makes 

 a great difference whether a man is working for 

 himself or tor others. We all know what a dif- 

 ference it makes in the amount of work done 

 whether a man is working by the day or by the 

 piece. Last autumn I had men diguring pota- 

 toes by the day, I paid them $1.25 per day. 

 Digging, picking up and pitting, cost me over 6 

 cents a bushel. I then told two of the men I 

 would give them 5 cents a bushel to do the 

 work. They took the job, and these two men 

 dug and pitted 100 bushels every day and then 

 went home, they sometimes got through by 4 

 o'clock in the afternoon. I got the work done 

 cheaper and the men earned double the money. 

 Now just think what this means; these men 

 were earning $1.25 per day. If we assume that 

 it cost them $1.00 per day for family expenses, 

 they made 25 cents a d ay. Now with a little 

 more energy, care and skill they earned $2.50 

 per day and, instead of making 25 cents over 

 and above expenses, they made $1.50 or six 

 times as much. In other words, they really 

 made as much money in one day as they were 

 previously making in a week. 



1 mention this merely to illustrate ray idea in 

 regard to the great advantage it is to us as a 

 nation to have such a large proportion of those 

 engaged in agricultural pursuits directly inter- 

 ested in the results of their labors. They are 

 the owners and occupiers and workers of the 



land. Self-interest calls out all their energy 

 and skill. They make every stroke tell. A na- 

 tion of such farmers ought to be a rich nation. 

 The American agriculture of thef uture will not 

 be English agriculture or European or Chinese 

 agriculture, it will be American agriculture. We 

 shall think for ourselves. One ot the oldest 

 and most successful farmers in the state of 

 New York is a Scotchman. But he does not use 

 Scotch plows or adopt the Scotch system of ro- 

 tation. He uses his Scotch knowledge and ex- 

 perience. But his farming is essentially Ameri- 

 can. We have many good English farmers 

 among us but we have no English farming. 



We have to think for ourselves ; we have to 

 study principles and apply them. Liebig has 

 more readers here than in Germany. 



The results of Dawes and Gilbert's experiments 

 at Rothamstead are more carefuly studied in 

 this country than in England. And there is a 

 reason for this. The English farmer can apply 

 Lawe's superphosphate to his turnip crop with- 

 out studying Lawes and Gilbert's account of 

 their 30 years' experiments. But here if we 

 would get any benefit from these wonderful in- 

 vestigations we must study them and master 

 the principles of agricultural science. 



This we are to some extent doing. The large 

 circulation of our numerous agricultural pa- 

 pers proves that American farmers are great 

 readers as well as great workers. They do not 

 spend their evenings at the village tavern. 

 Their houses may be isolated, but they are the 

 homes of much that is noble and true. We 

 need have no fears in regard to the rising gene- 

 ration of American farmers. 



" But are not your sons leaving the farm?" 

 Certainly, and do not English farmers' sons leave 

 the farm? The sons and daughters of Queen 

 Victoria cannot all be kings and queens, and the 

 sons and daughters of farmers cannot, all be 

 farmers and farmer's wives. I do not object to 

 young men leaving the farm for the cities, nor 

 to successful business men turning farmers. 

 We need more of the latter class in the coun- 

 try. 



But what of the active, enterprising, well- 

 educated young man who sticks to the farm or 

 who adopts agriculture as the business of his 

 life ; what are his prospects ? The farmer's son 

 who leaves the farm and turns carpenter, brick- 

 layer or mason may become a builder and con- 

 tractor and the owner of a dozen block s the 

 quarterly rent from any one of which would buy 

 his father's or bis brother's farm. 



Another farmer's son turns blacksmith, and 

 having learned to make nails and horse-shoes by 

 hand thinks he can make them by machinery, 

 and becomes a millionaire. Another is a shoe- 

 maker but does not stick solely to his last. He 

 becomes, after a few years, the President of one 

 of the largest boot & shoe manufacturing com- 

 panies in the world. Another studies law and 

 becomes an O'Connor or an Evarts. 



But I need not go through the list. We all 

 know, and the young men on the farm, know, 

 that there are great prizes to be won in the 

 learned professions and in trade, commerce and 

 manufactures. And they will try for them and 

 work for them, and I do not object to it. and if I 

 did it would make no sort of difference. A busi- 

 ness in which there are no prizes, will have lib- 

 tie attraction for a young man full of hope 

 and energy. 



Are there any prizes to be won in the field of 

 agriculture, and, if so, how shall we go to work 

 in order to get them ? 



Farming is said to be a slow business, but 

 sure. The man who cannot work and wait will 

 not succeed. But the agriculture of to-day or 

 of the future is very different from the agricul- 

 ture of the past. 



The improvement in agricultural implements 

 and machines is something wonderful. We can 



