No. 3. 



Silas WrighVs Address. 



9d 



these means and efforts, has been considered 

 natural and unavoidable. 



Still the agriculturist has been content to 

 follow in the beaten track, to pursue the 

 course his fathers have ever pursued, and to 

 depend on the earth, the seasons, good for- 

 tune, and providence, for a crop, indulging 

 the hope that high prices may compensate 

 for diminished quantity or interior quality. 

 It has scarcely occurred to him that the 

 study of the principles of his profession had 

 anything to do with his success as a farmer, 

 or that what he had demanded from his soils 

 should be considered in connection with 

 what he is to do for them, and what he is 

 about to ask them to perform. He has al- 

 most overlooked the vital fact, that his lands, 

 hke his patient teams, require to be fed to 

 enable them to perform well, and especially 

 has he neglected to consider that there is a 

 like connection between the quantity and 

 quality of the food they are to receive, and 

 the service to be required from them. Ready, 

 almost always, to the extent of their ability, 

 to make advances for the purchase of more 

 lands, how few of our farmers, in the compa- 

 rison, are willing to make the necessary 

 outlays for the profitable improvement of the 

 land they havel 



These and kindred subjects, are beginning 

 to occupy the minds of our farmers, and the 

 debt they owe to this society for its efforts to 

 awaken their attention to these important 

 facts, and to supply useful and practical in- 

 formation in regard to them, is gradually 

 receiving a just appreciation, as the assem- 

 blage which surrounds us, and the exhibi- 

 tions upon this ground, most gratifyingly 

 prove. 



Many of our agriculturists are now vigor- 

 ously commencing the study of their soils, 

 the adaptation of their manures to the soil 

 and the crop, the natures of the plants they 

 cultivate, the food they require, and the best 

 methods of administering that food to pro- 

 duce health and vigor and fruit; and they 

 are becoming convinced that to understand 

 how to plow and sow and reap, is not the 

 whole education of a farmer; but that it is 

 quite as important to know what land is pre- 

 pared for the plow, and what seed it will 

 bring to a harvest worthy of the labors of 

 the sickle. Experience is steadily proving 

 that by due attention to these considerations, 

 a better article, doubled in quantity, may be 

 produced from the same acre of ground, with 

 a small proportionate increase of labor and 

 expense, and that the farmer who pursues 

 this improved system of agriculture, can, 

 like the merchant and mechanic referred to, 

 enter the market with a better production. 



at a cheaper price, than his less enterprising 

 competitor. 



This change in the agriculture of our 

 state and country, opens to the mind reflec- 

 tions of the most cheering character. If 

 carried out to its legitimate results, it pro- 

 mises a competition among our farmers, not 

 to obtain the highest prices for inferior pro- 

 ductions, but to produce the most, the best, 

 and the cheapest of the necessaries of human 

 life. It promises agricultural prosperity, 

 with cheap and good bread, furnished in 

 abundance to all who will eat within the 

 rule prescribed to fallen man, in the sacred 

 volume of Divine law. 



Steady resolution and persevering energy, 

 are requisite to carry forward these improve- 

 ments to that degree of perfection dictated 

 alike by interest and by duty ; and the stim- 

 ulus of a steady and remunerating market 

 will rouse that resolution and nerve that en- 

 ergy. Without this encouragement in pros- 

 pect, few will persevere in making improve- 

 ments which require close and constant 

 mental application, as well as severe physi- 

 cal labor. Agriculture will never be health- 

 fully or profitably prosecuted by him whose 

 controlling object is his own consumption. 

 The hope of gain is the motive power to 

 human industry, and is as necessary to the 

 farmer as to the merchant or manufacturer. 

 All who labor are equally stimulated by the 

 prospect of a marljet which is to remunerate 

 them for their toil, and without this hope 

 oeither mental activity, nor physical energy, 

 will characterize their exertions. True it 

 is that the farmers of our country, as a class, 

 calculate less closely the profits of their 

 labor and capital, than men engaged in most 

 other pursuits, and are content with lower 

 rates of gain. The most of them own their 

 farms, their stocks and farming implements, 

 unencumbered by debt. Their business 

 gives but an annual return. They live fru- 

 gally, labor patiently and faithfully, and at 

 the close of the year, its expenses are paid 

 from its proceeds, the balance remaining 

 being accounted the profits of the year. 

 Although a moderate sum, it produces con- 

 tentment, without a computation of the rate 

 per cent, upon the capital invested, or the 

 wages it will pay to the proprietor and the 

 members of the family. The result is an 

 advance in the great object of human labor, 

 and, if not rapid, it is safe and certain. It 

 is a surplus beyond the expenses of living, 

 to be added to the estate, and may be repeat- 

 ed in each revolving year. 



If, however, this surplus is left upon the 

 hands. of the farmer, in his own products, 

 for which there is no market, his energies 



