108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



about him, — the plainest intelligence cannot but feel that 

 he is standing upon the very threshold of the arcana of 

 nature, and permitted to see and touch and understand, as 

 no others can, the secrets of her wonderful laws. 



The farmer who comes to his employment with something 

 of this spirit finds himself in the midst of an endless field of 

 observation, study and experiment. He learns the qualities 

 of the soil on diflercnt parts of his farm and the crops for 

 which they are best suited, and then, by a corresponding 

 study of his nearest or best market, he adapts the one to 

 the other, with the same intelligent appreciation of means 

 and ends as characterizes the successful man in the highest 

 forms of industrial organization. This implies that, in the 

 next place, he must l)e an alert and well-informed man of 

 business. He will waste little time in new ventures, but 

 will learn, as promptly and accurately as possible, what he, 

 Yv ith his powers and resources, can best do with his farm as 

 it is, — not omitting, of course, a constant and persistent 

 efi'ort to improve it. He will not stake the results of his 

 year's enterprise on a single crop, however tempting its 

 temporary promise of large returns. If he cultivates or- 

 chards, he will raise apples, pears, cherries and such other 

 kinds as he understands and his soil is adapted to and his 

 market will al)Sorb. If he turns his attention to small fruits, 

 he will observe the same system of selection and adaptation. 

 If he devotes himself to dairying or stock raising, he will 

 still have enough of reserve in other directions, so that no 

 chance of seasons can rob him and his family of a comfort- 

 able livelihood from products of their own raising. He will 

 see to it that every product which is shipped to any market 

 from his farm is so carefully assorted and guaranteed and 

 put up with such care and taste and attractive form that his 

 label will be a passport to the confidence and patronage 

 of the most desirable buyers ; and, above all, as a sound 

 business man, whenever he saves one hundred dollars or 

 one dollar he will put it in some safe investment, where 

 it will work for him by night and by day the year round, 

 or he will invest it in the betterment of his property. He 

 will not think of the farm as a place to make money and 

 the city as a place to speculate with it. He will have no 



