DISCOURAGErvS AND PESSIMISTS 223 



description, aud, obviously, it is the (nily rational attitude that 

 can be assumed in regard to agriculture. 



" Is this a practical industry ? Can it be made to pay ? " 

 are the only two questions that shrewd business men in every 

 conceivable economic condition at the present time ever find 

 it necessary to ask. The question — " Can it be made to pay ? " — 

 is the only one that concerns us here, because agriculture, as a 

 widespread industry, is too well known to render any other 

 question necessary. 



Agriculture can be made to pay as every other industry 

 can, but no industry, however common it may be, is likely 

 to succeed unless those engaged in it possess the necessary 

 essentials to success. Two men may start in the boot and 

 shoe manulacturing business, for example, each of them being 

 equipped with the necessary capital and knowledge of the 

 trade. One succeeds and the other fails — why ? Tlie answer 

 is simple enough — because the one who succeeds knows what 

 he has to do and how to do it, and the other does not. 



Two men may start farming under precisely similar con- 

 ditions, the one succeeds and the other man makes a mess 

 of his venture — why ? Because one has all the essentials 

 to success, namely assiduity, the faculty of absorbing know- 

 ledge and assimilating experience, coupled with industry aud 

 thrift, and the other lacks some or all of these necessary 

 qualifications. What other result but failure for the one 

 and success for the other can tliere be under such conditions ? 



Aud so it is all through life. You may do your best to 

 equalise opportunities so as to give every man the same chance, 

 but you are bound to fail, because those who start in the race 

 vary so widely in temperament, ability, and those qualities 

 which make for success, that even a handicap becomes 

 impossible. 



Misconceptions about Aguicultuhe 



Agriculture itself is a case in point. The common belief 

 is that the land industry in this country is so hopeless as 

 to be practically a negligible quantity in the economy of the 

 nation ; yet, in spite of this widespread idea, agriculture is still 

 by far tlie largest aud most important industry of the country, 

 inasmuch as, in spite of the fatuous agricultural policy of 

 the past, it still engages a greater head of the population than 

 any two of our largest industries put together, namely, tli^c 

 whole of the textile iimaufavtures and the miniiuj indiidri/. 



That there are successful farmers and unsuccesstul ones 

 is as certain as that tliere are successes and failures in otlior 



