SECRETARY'S REPORT. 73 



of skill and excellence. Have we done this, or any thing 

 like it ? Do we, although engaged in what is confessedly 

 the most important, as it is the most wide-spread occupa- 

 tion, prepare ourselves for its pursuit with a care at all 

 to be compared to its magnitude, or to that bestowed by those 

 following any other branch of legitimate useful business ? 

 Do we, like the professional man, fit ourselves by a long 

 course of study and examination of principles and prece- 

 dents ? Like the manufacturer, do we calculate carefully the 

 first cost of the raw material, the exact expenditure of time and 

 labor, thereby so ascertaining the value by the cost, and thereby 

 regulating the market ? Or do we proceed with that method, 

 that directness of purpose, that certainty of accomplishing 

 certain results by certain operations, which makes the mechanic 

 successful and prosperous ? With the negative which rises in 

 response to these questions, we are perhaps told that all these 

 things are not practicable, if possible. It is true that there 

 are certain conditions and elements which are beyond our 

 control ; the soil, the climate, sunshine or shade, heat and cold, 

 dryness or moisture, cannot be much affected by our efforts ; 

 but under that gracious guaranty that " seed time and harvest 

 shall not fail," do we strive as much as in us lies to attain any 

 high degree of. exactness or perfection, in our profession of 

 farming ? Granted that our climate is cold ; that our land 

 does not spontaneously produce the food that nurtures, or the 

 garments that cover us ; that our soil, naturally unfertile, is 

 worn and exhausted ; that our houses and buildings, many of 

 them, are old, cold and uncomfortable ; and that our means 

 for extensive repairs and improvements are limited ; — with all 

 these odds against us, do we yet accomplish all we might, to 

 improve ourselves and our condition ? 



Do we not find at the very outset a leading cause of loss or 

 waste in the want of education, method and system in manag- 

 ing the farm so as to know the cost and profits of each branch 

 of farming? Is there not an entire lack of accuracy in the 

 details of the business, which of course renders any statement 

 of results or experiments uncertain ? For instance, a farmer 

 calling a piece of land two acres, (it may be one and three- 

 fourths or two and one-fourth acres,) hauls upon it so many 

 cartloads of manure, not knowing whether his cart holds thirty 



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