ADDRESS. 23 



proportion of raen who find themselves rich at sixty, were even " square 

 with the world," at thirty. I may be mistalieu, but I have an impres- 

 sion, that very little of the property owned by men, is acquired during 

 the deca le succeeding their majority. A large proportion of successful 

 men, either engage in business for themselves, after they are thirty, or 

 are forced to build up success upon the ruins of a failure, and in either 

 case, profit by their experience. 



And most assuredly is it the best policy to make haste slowly, when 

 delay may bring capital, in the form of accumulated earnings. The 

 demand for skilled and intelligent labor, is and must be for years to 

 come, in our growing country, in excess of the supply, and the first few 

 years of early manhood cannot be regarded as misspent, nor can the 

 labor crowded into them be as hard, or the anxiety of life so wearing, 

 if given to that mechanical employment, which most naturally and easily 

 promises a fair return, as would surely be the case, if in the haste to 

 embark on his own account, the over zealous young man were to plunge 

 into farming, or other business, destitute alike of experience, and cap- 

 ital. 



I might dwell upon these topics almost indefinitely, for they are 

 directly in the channel, in which the thoughts of a business man most 

 naturally run ; but alas ! there is a limit even to the patience of a. 

 farmer, and there must be a corresponding one, to an agricultural ad- 

 dress. The suggestions which have been made are such as have seemed 

 to me best calculated to serve the farmer, and lighten his cares and 

 toil. They have been applied, and their value tested, in all directions 

 save perhaps in farming ; and I can see no reason why system and accu- 

 racy are not equally applicable to that, as to other branches of business. 



Agriculture is the most important interest in the world, because it is 

 the basis upon which all others rest. Ask a shrewd merchant as to the 

 prospects of business, in days to come, and he points to the crop reports 

 for his reply. Improvement and progress in agriculture then, is improve- 

 ment and progress in all directions ; and it really seems that it is or 

 would be, a long stride forward in the direction of progress, at least, 

 could the farmer. — bj the introduction of the system and method, which 

 in other branches of business are found indispensable to success, but 

 which in farming are, to say the least, not common, — be enabled to see 

 and know, th&t labor which in this direction, means success and rich 

 returns, in that, h utterly wasted and thrown away, or worse. 



Complaint is often made that the boys leave the farm — that other 

 modes of life have greater attraction for them. I doubt not that it is so, 

 and I know it will continue to be so, till you reverse the conditions, 

 and make the attractions of a farm life, greater than can be found else- 

 where This you can only do, by giving the brains more, and the 

 hands less, to do. We live in an a(»;e of thouo-ht, and we must not 

 expect, after lavishing money upon the schools and colleges, to which 

 we send our boys to learn things their fathers never dreamed of, that 

 they will be satisfied to be fitted to the old time grooves, to accept eon- 



