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under which onr agricultural population is now laboring — dull 

 local markets, small profits and heavy expenses. But I cannot 

 forget what industry and economy accomplished for our ances- 

 tors, who first occupied the soil, and I see no reason to doubt 

 that as it was with them, so it will be with us continually. 

 That an ingenious application of labor to a small homestead 

 will meet with an ample reward, I cannot doubt. The exercise 

 of those virtues and faculties which give success in other 

 branches of business must inevitably succeed in this. 



A life thus profitably occupied means a life of frugality, 

 foresight, prudence, industry and the most careful calculation. 

 It furnishes no opportunity for the joy of successful or the 

 despair of unsuccessful speculation. But it does provide a 

 sphere in which self-control may lay the foundation of a con- 

 tented and happy home, and a life of usefulness and happiness 

 and prosperity. I am the more encouraged to state this from 

 the fact that those who make this the land of their adoption 

 are eager to possess the abandoned farms of our own people > 

 and find in them all the prosperity and comfort they desire. I 

 know many an out-lying and idle farm from which a fair for- 

 fortune was reaped in a former generation, and from which 9, 

 crop of strong, capable and useful men has been sent forth to 

 take part in the business, of the world. Is this thing impossible 

 now ? The methods may have changed ; the advant9,geous lo- 

 calities may have changed ; the markets may have changed ; 

 the economies of the business may have changed ; but the op- 

 portunities for success have not changed. I am entirely un- 

 willing to believe that a farm properly selected and arranged 

 with reference to soil and markets may not remunerate the 

 cultivator now, as it did formerly. And I urge upon all indi- 

 viduals and associations into whose hands are committed the 



