No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 117 



eleven hundred and fifty syndicates, numbering more than 

 five hundred thousand members. In addition to this public 

 or oflScial instruction, there is agricultural instruction given 

 in institutions which are free : first, the school of the higher 

 agricultural studies at Lille ; second, the agricultural insti- 

 tute of Beauvais ; third, the free school of agriculture and 

 viticulture at Saint-Astier ; fourth, the free school of agri- 

 culture of Providence in Aurons ; a course of rural economy 

 just established at Paris. In addition to this, in each of the 

 departments of France there exist one or more agricultural 

 orphan schools. 



There is no formula for making every man successful in 

 any calling. There is nowhere a perpetual insurance policy 

 against failure. The farmer must take the same chances and 

 stand the same tests as other men. Carefulness, intelli- 

 gence, frugality and thrift will, in the absence of special 

 calamity or disaster, invariably win success. Negligence, 

 ignorance, wastefulness and laziness won't. In the per- 

 petual shiftings of modern industry, the farmer has one 

 advantage of which he can never be deprived. All im- 

 provements in machiner}' operate principally to reduce the 

 margin between the cost of producing the raw material and 

 the cost of converting it into usable commodities. All 

 increased facilities for transportation reduce the margin 

 between the cost of producing raw material and other com- 

 modities and their selling price to consumers in the market. 

 The farmer secures the benefit of l)oth of these reductions in 

 the diminished cost of every article which he purchases ; but 

 the cost of the raw material which he produces is less sub- 

 ject than the finished product to variation from artificial 

 causes, for the reason that human labor enters in larger 

 proportion into the former than into the latter. In other 

 words, the most constant, that is, invariable factor in pro- 

 duction is human labor, and therefore the farmer will, in 

 the long run, secure a larger and safer (that is, less vari- 

 able) return for his product than any other producer; and 

 there is always a market for good things. On the other 

 hand, the farmer is at one disadvantage, which, in the very 

 nature of things, he can never fully overcome ; he is obliged 

 to plan his expenditure and his income largely with refer- 



