146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



" Nothing but a horse-doctor." I call myself a horse-doctor, 

 and what am I ? I can be more useful to the people of my 

 country, I can be more useful to you, than any member of the 

 medical profession, or any other profession, in a practical point of 

 view, directly and immediately. I say this without qualification. 

 Prof. Agassiz. I want to say one word upon this subject. 

 I alluded this morning to a college in this country, now two 

 months old, the Cornell University. That college has already 

 a professor of veterinary science, who was a pupil of the gentle- 

 man who has just addressed us. 



HOW TO MAKE FARMING PROFITABLE. 



The Chair announced that the next subject for discussion 

 was, How TO Make Farming Profitable, which would be opened 

 by William Clift, Esq., of the " American Agriculturist," of 

 New York City. 



Mr. Clift. I find myself put down in the programme, by the 

 President of the College, I suppose, to open the discussion upon 

 the question, How to Make Farming Profitable. Well, I shall 

 not assume that farming is not profitable already, in some 

 degree. A business that feeds and clothes the larger part of 

 forty millions of people directly, and indirectly all the rest, 

 cannot be said to be an unprofitable business. Nor is it as- 

 sumed that there are no farmers who do not already come up 

 to the standard of making farming as profitable as merchants 

 and mechanics make their business ; that is, make it pay an 

 average on the investment of seven per cent. I suppose that 

 is what the ordinary rate of interest anywhere in the country 

 indicates. The average value of investments is the ordinary 

 rate of interest, whatever that may be ; and if there are any 

 farmers who make their business pay them seven per cent., 

 their business is just as profitable as the average business car- 

 ried on in the country. I suppose there are farmers who get 

 seven, eight, nine and ten per cent, on their investment ; but 

 the great mass of our farmers, all through New England and 

 the North, — the most prosperous part of the country, — do not 

 get that interest for their investments. They do not get five 

 per cent., or four per cent. ; a good many do not get throe per 

 cent, on the amount of capital they have invested in their busi- 

 ness, and so their business, to that degree, is not profitable. 



