15 



in wliicli no dangers will lurk. But observation shows 

 that he is mistaken. Out of ten men who can make 

 money in the pursuits with which they are acquainted, 

 not more than five of them can keep that which they 

 have made, when they leave those pursuits. For, in 

 withdrawing from the track with which he is familiar, 

 and entering the new path, our gentleman with the com- 

 petenence runs many risks, and frequently makes most 

 ruinous mistid-ces. If he goes into the stock market he 

 finds sharpers, bigger than the dividends their schemes 

 promise, and more abundant than the nuggets of gold 

 and silver in the mines of which they would have him 

 ])urcliase shares. 



If, turning from such snares, he invests one portion of 

 liis property in safe concerns, and another portion in the 

 much desired farm, he lacks the practical skill in the 

 management of the latter, which one possesses who has 

 spent his daj^s in agricultural pursuits ; and it will not 

 be strange, if it takes all the income of his vested funds 

 to enable him to carry on the farm with as fair a show 

 as his practical neighbor, who manages without the in- 

 come of investments. 



Let him, therefore, who has a farm in any district of 

 New England, which equals the average for fertility and 

 advantages of position, hold it, as the safest form in 

 which his property can be invested, and work it with 

 that thought and skill which are the guaranty of fair 

 returns, remembering, meanwhile, that not the ruler of 

 the State, nor the proudest merchant upon 'change, is so 

 independent as himself, of the crises and changes, which^ 

 whether by violence, or the operation of steady laws, 

 occur so frequently in the social and political affiairs of 

 the country. 



