How, and in what manner, agriculture may be placed in its 

 true position, and its labors fully rewarded, are questions which 

 interest not only farmers, but the whole community. Why is 

 it that while . success attends upon the labor of those engaged 

 in commerce, trade and manufactures, the farmer quietly plods 

 onr.year alter year, accumulating but slowly ; and frequently at 

 the expiration of thirty, forty, or even fifty years, of hard work, 

 finds that that he is rewarded for all his toil with but a little 

 more than enough to suffice for the wants of his declining 

 years, when labor has become too heavy to be continuously car- 

 ried on ? Is the fault inherent in the farm, or is it in its man- 

 agement ? Does the want of success commensurate with labor 

 bestowed depend upon circumstances beyond the control of the 

 the laborer, or does] it depend upon the absence of those ele- 

 ments which are conducive to success in other pursuits ? In 

 determining these questions, another question arises. What 

 are the elements of success ? The experience of the world, 

 and the individual history of the majority of those who have 

 become prosperous in the attainment of wealth, and great in 

 usefulness, answer, that success depends upon energetic and per- 

 severing labor, directed by knowledge accompanied with cou- 

 rage, economy, and integrity. Any man with good health and 

 moderate mental capacity, with these elements properly com- 

 bined and put into operation, may, in the long run, bid defi- 

 ance to those circumstances over which his neighbor, without 

 these qualities, has no control. And he may feel assured that 

 he is on the highway to social position, with a competence for 

 the present and future, if not with an overflowing abundance. 



Are any of these elements, or the combination of the whole, 

 beyond the re^ch of any person ? Let no one answer this 

 question for himself in the negative, until he has made a fair 

 attempt to possess them, and failed, after repeated eiEFort. 



Labor, however energetically and perseveringly pursued, 

 improperly directed, without knowledge, is like beating the 

 air ; and results only in an expenditure of strength without 



