190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and less. To overcome the obstacles slie opposes, more and 

 more constant thought must be called forth on the farm than in 

 the manufactory. 



Manufacturers may multiply their profits with their old 

 machinery, in the old way, but the farmer must invent new 

 tools, and new methods, if he would prosper amid the difficulties 

 under which he is placed. 



The third conclusion, and the one to which we would draw 

 attention more especially, is, that good farming tends to the 

 condensation of labor, not to its diffusion. It tends to gather 

 in labor upon a small surface. The same amount of labor is 

 more profitably expended on a small than a large area. We see 

 this in connection with the second deduction, that the farmer 

 must advance by wit, and not by work alone. Meeting with 

 increasing disadvantages as he enlarges his land, he will find, as 

 he brings more thought to his task, that he must expend his 

 labor on the old ground, rather than on new. 



There can scarcely be any method devised of permanently 

 enlarging the fertility of land, of making it a more productive 

 agent, and one more easily handled, that does not, at the outset, 

 call for extra labor. Take draining for an illustration. Much 

 cannot be done at this on a farm of two hundred and fifty acres, 

 worked by two laborers. The cold, wet, unpleasant soil must 

 be left to yield what it will. Let the owner resolve to drain 

 thoroughly, and a few fields must then be taken in hand, to the 

 abandonment of the remainder. 



So, too, the cultivation of a crop, especially the more profitable 

 crops on land brought into good condition, wiU require greater 

 attention and completeness of treatment in proportion as we are 

 determined to reach the highest results. We shall omit part of 

 our task, that we may do the remainder as it ought to be done. 



We see this also in connection with the use of manures. As 

 agriculture progresses, manures become more and more essen- 

 tial. The farmer raises larger quantities of produce on the 

 same ground ; he finds, therefore, that he has not enough ferti- 

 lizers for two hundred acres, and that he must use them all on 

 forty. This discovery, that he must manure more thoroughly 

 to get the reward of his labor, will again tend to concentration. 



As civilization has advanced, there has been a constant con- 

 densation of labor. The savages who occupied the country 



