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tipon the same scale with the rich farmers of the best portioliS 

 of Europe, and for the very reason that our farmers have not 

 for a long series of years given the same importance to farm- 

 ing that European farmers have ; they have not applied the 

 same energy and talent in this business which they have done. 

 Other branches of industry have been more attractive in this 

 country. Fortunes acquired by bold and successful dashes 

 have so captivated the imagination of our young men, that 

 that they have rushed from the slower and more quiet routine 

 of farm life into the whirling eddies of speculation and trade, 

 out of which tliiey hope to emerge with wealth sufficient to re- 

 turn once again to the old homestead, where they may enjoy their 

 fortunes in the peaceful retirement of rural life, outside of the 

 bustle and tumult by day and the anxious thought by night, 

 which constantly abide by the man seeking riches with hasty 

 steps. 



Let our young men be content to apply to the farm the same 

 energy, the same zeal, the same labor, the same learning, which 

 they are willing to devote to the more hazardous business 

 which now engrosses the attention of so many of them ; and 

 although they may not reap wealth so abundantly as some of 

 their neighbors engaged other pursuits, yet they will find less 

 disappointments. There will be fewer upon whom fortune 

 will frown, and many more who will obtain that competence 

 which suffices for all needful wants, and sufficient for a gene- 

 rous liberality. Nor will the other branches of trade, me- 

 chanics, commerce, or manufacture, suffer by increased atten- 

 tion to agriculture. Thrifty agriculture will demand more labor 

 saving machinery, better farm implements, more manufactures 

 of all kinds, induce emigration from the overstocked population 

 of the great cities of other countries, and will give increased 

 impetus to all business ; for upon agriculture all other business " 

 is based and supported. 



Upon the subject of integrity, as useful and necessary to 

 prosperity in our mutual dealings and transactions with each 

 other, I need not dwell. That honesty, in the long run, is the 



