AGEICULTURE OF MASSACHUSEHS. 



DEBT AISTD SUCCESS. 



From an Addi'ess before the Worcester Agricultural Society. 



BY GEOEGE S. BOUTWELL. 



It has been said, in another form of expression, that the 

 slightest excess of expenses over income is poverty, and that 

 the slightest excess of income over expenses is wealth. The 

 ability of practical farmers to master this great j)roblem of 

 life is not so much dependent upon what they know of their 

 business as upon their faculty to apply what they know. 

 Success in business is due to administration. Capacity in 

 administration is due to that faculty, power or quality, called 

 common sense, which everybody speaks well of and nobody 

 understands precisely. We infer its presence or its absence 

 from the results of a man's life. I venture upon a definition 

 of the phrase I am using, not so much for the purpose of 

 making its meaning clear as for the purpose of giving it a 

 loftier place in your thoughts. Common sense is a degree, a 

 high degree, — in fine, the highest degree, — of human wisdom 

 applied to practical things. It is not learning, it is not 

 knowledge ; it is rather the faculty of applying what we know 

 to what Ave do. Other things being equal, the practical farmer 

 who knows the most will do the best ; but other things not 

 being equal, a man who excels in wisdom in administration 

 may surpass a man of greater learning, or even one of greater 

 knowledge of things. But do not allow this suggestion to 

 lead you to place a lower estimation upon learning, whether 

 general or professional ; for culture of every sort gives us 

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