8 Mil. Huntington's address. 



mind is disastrous to all good husbandry. The halt- 

 ing and hesitating farmer, who is perpetually doubt- 

 ing whether he is in his proper element, will be very 

 certain to find himself out of it, and in no other, or 

 certainly in no better one, in the end. But I have 

 presumed that this is no longer debateable ground, 

 and that your decision is fixed and irrevocable. To 

 such I would say, give to the profession of your 

 choice the best energies of your bodies and minds. 

 Husbandry is no light or easy service. It requires 

 diligent and intelligent labor — and for such it will 

 always return adequate rewards. Be active, indus- 

 trious, inquiring. Apply the mind with assiduity, as 

 well as the labor of the hands. Carry into your busi- 

 ness the same zeal and enterprise, which are the 

 harbingers of success in the other pursuits of life, 

 and they will accomplish as truly useful results for 

 you, as they do for others. It has often occurred to 

 me, that with many, the object of farming seemed to 

 be a sort of experiment, to determine with how little 

 labor, industry, and good management, the farm 

 could be made to clear itself from year to year. — 

 Some farmers seem to think, that if they can procure 

 the means of a tolerable subsistence, they have ac- 

 complished all that is desirable. Others extend their 

 views somewhat farther, and are satisfied if they can 

 obtain a merely comfortable support for themselves 

 and families, not having in either case any direct 

 reference to the capabilities or the permanent im- 

 provement of their estates. 



The true problem to be worked out by every in- 

 telligent and enterprising farmer, I take it to be this, 

 to raise annually the greatest possible amount of the 

 most profitable crops, having a single eye to income 

 immediate or more remote, according to his means, 

 and especially to the gradual and permanent im- 

 provement of his farm. The practical farmer, whose 

 own personal labor is his principal active capital, 

 cannot afford to make doubtful experiments on any 

 considerable scale. He cannot afford to improve his 



