HOW TO MAKE FARMING PAY. 147 



Now, what shall be done to make the business pay as other 

 investments pay ? In the first place, I think we want more 

 faith in our business. That is the one great want in all farm- 

 ing communities — faith in their business. What is the indica- 

 tion that they have not faith in tlieir business ? You may look 

 into almost any of our agricultural parishes here at the North, 

 and you will find that they have been continually decreasing in 

 population for the last fifty years — unless that decrease has beeu 

 arrested in the last ten years, during which time we have had 

 agricultural societies established, and a great many agricultural 

 papers established, and agricultural colleges established, and 

 means taken to enlighten the public upon this great interest and 

 make it more profitable. I say in almost all the exclusively 

 agricultural parishes in the older parts of the North the popu- 

 lation is decreasing, or at least stationary. It is so, at any rate, 

 in Connecticut, and I suppose it is so in Massachusetts, and in 

 almost all parts of New England. This shows that the farmers 

 have not a great deal of faith in their business. 



Then the tendency of population in the United States is tow- 

 ards cities, and their population is increased at the expense of 

 our agricultural population. We find that in these farming 

 districts farmers' sons almost all leave the farm, showing that 

 they don't believe farming is as good a business as some trading 

 or mercantile business in the city. They are all off as soon as 

 they become of an age when they can be useful. At sixteen, 

 seventeen or eighteen years of age, they are off to learn a trade 

 or some mercantile business, showing that they have no faitli in 

 tlie business of farming. Go into half of our agricultural towns 

 and I suppose you will find half of the farmers ready to sell out, 

 and exchange their business for some other, as soon as they can 

 find an opportunity to sell for a satisfactory price, showing that 

 they have no faith in their business. Now, if a man wants to 

 succeed in his business he must have faith in it as a business 

 that will sustain him and provide for his old age, and afford a 

 comfortable support for his family. That is what we want to 

 see among farmers. When the man who drives down a stake 

 feels that it is driven for life, when he feels that every tree he 

 plants is to be a strong bond to bind him to that spot for life, 

 he will thrive by farming ; and when farmers do this they will 

 show to the world that they have faith in their business, and 



