1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



317 



"He has no capital, yet without it he earns about 

 as much as, on a moderate calculation, I ought 

 to obtain from the profits of my farm united with 

 those of my own labor. Yet I work as hard as 

 any one of my hired men, and at the end of the 

 year, when I compare my profits and expenses, I 

 am obliged to call my own labor almost nothing, 

 or reckon the interest on my property as nothing, 

 in order to satisfy myself that I have earned half 

 as much as the merchant's clerk obtains by writ- 

 ing eight hours a day. It must be true that a 

 farm is poor stock, and that farming is unprofit- 

 able business. Seven thousand dollars, the rate- 

 able value of my farm, if invested in safe bank 

 stock, would yield me a sure income of $420, 

 which would amply support me and my family, if 

 we preserved our present economical habits." 



The merchant's clerk arrives in the middle of 

 the farmer's soliloquy, and invites him to com- 

 pare notes. The clerk insists that the farmer is 

 better off than himself, even on the supposition 

 that the clerk could be always sure of his salary. 

 "You remark," says the clerk, "that your farm is 

 so much capital sunk ; because with the aid of it 

 you can earn only about as much as you could 

 probably earn with your hands in other business 

 without it ; and only half as much as I can with- 

 out any capital. You have taken only a specula- 

 tor's view of the case. Let us consider it in an 

 economical point of view, and I think I can prove 

 your condition to be better than mine. You con- 

 tend that you ought to earn as much I do, to be 

 equal with «ae. You would then have this ad- 

 vantage over me ; your farm is a sort of anchor 

 of your fortune, which must prevent its being en- 

 tirely wrecked. I have no such anchor. You 

 would be satisfied if your farm and your labor 

 yielded you $1000 a year; but you deny that 

 they yield you more than half that sum. I think 

 I can prove the contrary. 



"It is difficult to make an accurate estimate of 

 family expenses in your case, and proportionally 

 difficult to estimate your profits. If you want a 

 head of cabbage or half a peck of potatoes before 

 they are stored, you take them from your grounds, 

 and do not credit them to your farm. When I 

 procure the same from the market, I pay five 

 cents for the first, and fifteen cents for the other. 

 You should, therefore, charge five cents for every 

 cabbage, and fifteen cents for every half peck of 

 good potatoes consumed in your family, to the 

 credit of your farm, when you are comparing 

 notes with me. The same you should do with 

 relation to every other article of your produce 

 and consumption, however insignificant, for 

 which I am obliged to pay money; because if you 

 were in my situation, and had neither garden nor 

 farm, each of these trifles would assist in forming 

 an aggregate of very considei-able amount, in the 

 course of the year ! Farmers do not always take 

 these trifles into their account, when they com- 

 pare their own condition with that of their neigh- 

 bors. 



"With us these trifles are luxuries, and we pay 

 a high price for many things which are so abun- 

 dant with you that you are willing to waste them. 

 Your farm furnishes you with these luxuries at 

 appa/"ntly so small cost, that you regard them 

 as unworthy of any account ; yet if you examined 

 every item of my expenses, you would find a very 

 considerable sum laid out quarterly for these 



things. Fifty dollars a year, at least, is required 

 to furnish my family with articles that might be 

 classed under this denomination. So much, there- 

 fore, in comparing your circumstances with mine, 

 is to be passed to the credit of your farm. 



"I pay $150 — my travelling expenses — for 

 country air. This costs you nothing, but it is to 

 be subtracted from my salary, and brings me down 

 $150 nearer to the standard you have assumed 

 for your own profits. Many a merchant residing 

 near Boston, has paid a thousand dollars or 

 more, for an acre of land adjoining his house, to 

 be used as mere space, and kept in grass as a 

 pleasure ground, and which after all is as need- 

 ful for health as for pleasure. This is a luxury 

 which the wealthy only can enjoy in the suburbs 

 of the city. All the inhabitants of the city are 

 obliged to pay a heavy tax for water. It is the 

 multitude of such expenses that renders it so dif- 

 ficult to live on a small income in the city. 



"If my income is double yours, while you can 

 obtain with five hundred dollars, all that I can 

 obtain with one thousand, it is plain that your 

 five hundred is equivalent to my ten hundred. I 

 am supposing that you live in every respect as 

 well as I do ; that you have as many comforts 

 and conveniences, and as many luxuries as I do. 

 This is undoubtedly true of our farmers compared 

 with our salaried men. I believe the majority of 

 farmers, whose farms range from $2000 to $8000 

 in value, live as well as the same number of sal- 

 aried clerks, teachers and clergymen, whose sal- 

 aries range from $500 to $1200 a year. 



"But you reply that we live more at ease. It 

 is true that we perform less corporeal labor, but 

 we suffer more confinement. We have more 

 ease, you more independence. We are obliged 

 to wear better clothes than you. It is one of our 

 misfortunes that we are obliged to dress accord- 

 mg to an expensive style established by custom. 

 This furnishes another article of expense which is 

 much greater than yours in the same department. 

 We ai"e, with our families, more directly under 

 the tyranny of fashion than you are. This dif- 

 ference between us constitutes one of your ad- 

 vantages." 



Farmer. — "In the world you are considered a 

 gentleman, and I a clown." 



Clerk. — "I will be candid, and will admit that 

 in certain situations, as in a ball-room, or at a 

 tea-party, we should probably be received with 

 more favor than you. But were American soci- 

 ety to be graduated as it is in Europe, you land- 

 owners or yeomen would be placed some degrees 

 above us clerks and salaried men, who are de- 

 pendents. At political meetings you have at 

 present more consideration than we. A farmer, 

 other things being equal, is more likely than a 

 salaried man to be elected a representative to the 

 General Court, to be made a Justice of the Peace, 

 and to be elected to many other political offices. 

 We clerks, obtain, comparatively, but little po- 

 litical consideration. The account is, therefore, 

 very evenly balanced between us. If we are re- 

 ceived with more favor in social circles, you ob- 

 tain a great deal more in political circles, because 

 your property, though small, lifts you above 

 want, and makes you independent." 



Farmer. — "This may all be admitted ; but I 

 have often thought that if I could have sold my 

 property for cash in early life, and invested it in 



