72 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



duce, if grazing were made a business, and larger areas were 

 brought into a more homogeneous condition ; or, in other 

 words, if over the entire pastures there is no choice of feed. 

 For you must have observed that in a pasture of say 

 one hundred acres, cattle will select the best portions and 

 leave the inferior parts untouched; while, if the inferior 

 parts were fenced off and cattle confined there, they will 

 feed the ground over and thrive. 



The beef-eaters of New England cities are in this confined 

 condition, living on inferior feed; but we shall, sooner 

 or later, jump the fence, as your cattle always do when they 

 find out the imposition practised on them. 



Let ten or twenty men with capital or experience, or 

 both, procure as many acres as the magnitude of their pro- 

 posed work shall demand, ascertain what hotels or what 

 markets they can suppl}^ and enter upon the work of pro- 

 viding the best of beef to their customers. 



No farmer ever need advertise a pair of fat oxen for sale 

 in Massachusetts, or in any other parts of New England 

 where I have been. 



If one pair is sought after on account of superior quality, 

 five hundred head or five thousand head of like quality would 

 also be sought after in preference to the beef now being 

 shipped from the far West. 



It is capital, brains and energy which will establish this 

 enterprise on a footing which will eventually meet and settle 

 the difficulty to which I have referred. 



There will be no clashing of interests West and East. 

 Both will see the wisdom of harmonious co-operation to 

 compass the desideratum. 



In our day of great enterprises, massed capital and an 

 almost unchecked ambition, it is common to say that what 

 can be made profitable by corporations is the ruin of the 

 individual. We have not hoard yet, however, that what 

 private enterprise has made profitable will languish under the 

 direction and management of capital, brains and energy. 



I do not recommend any step in the direction of forming 

 strong and monopolistic corporations, but that our farming 

 and agricultural interests shall combine in the interest of 

 the people. 



